What secret Easter eggs and reveals does Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1's full trailer contain? Executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 premieres with two episodes on Thursday, January 15, 2026.
San Diego Comic-Con offered fans their first glimpse at Star Trek: Starfleet Academy with a teaser trailer that revealed Academy Award winner Holly Hunter as Captain and Chancellor Nahla Ake, Paul Giamatti as the villainous Nus Braka, and the young cast of Starfleet cadets.
New York Comic Con has unveiled the full trailer for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, which offers a deeper look into the characters and central conflicts of Paramount+'s newest Star Trek series. Here are 10 key details in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's trailer.
Nus Braka Kidnaps Caleb Mir’s Mother Played By Tatiana Maslany
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy starts with a tragedy 15 years before the show's main setting of 3191, when the mother of young Caleb Mir, played by Tatiana Maslany, is kidnapped by Nus Braka. Even though Braka is captured, he still taunts the little boy who lost his mother.
Nahla Ake appears to have been present when Caleb's mother was abducted and was unable to stop it. Somehow, young Caleb escapes and goes missing because it takes Ake fifteen years to find Caleb, who is played by Sandro Rosta as a young adult.
Why Did Captain Ake Search For Caleb Mir For 15 Years?
What ties Captain Nahla Ake has to Caleb Mir's mother are unclear. Nahla is part-Lanthanite and is over 400 years old, so perhaps they are old friends. Captain Ake finally finds Caleb, and she recruits Mir into Starfleet Academy as a cadet.
Captain Ake's selling point to bring Caleb into the Academy is that, "The Federation will help you find your mother." This sets up a central story arc for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1 that must lead to a reunion between mother and son, and answers why she was taken.
Mary Wiseman Appears As Lt. Sylvia Tilly
Mary Wiseman returning as Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly is a welcome sight. Tilly became a Starfleet Academy instructor in Star Trek: Discovery, and it was initially believed that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy would be built around Tilly, who would have a leading role.
However, Tilly was missing from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's teaser trailer, and Mary Wiseman will reportedly only appear in one episode. This shot of Tilly must be from that lone appearance if the reports are true. Hopefully, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will explain where Tilly is otherwise.
Star Trek: Discovery is still well-represented by Tig Notaro as Commander Jett Reno, who is seen lecturing the cadets in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's trailer. Oded Fehr also returns as Admiral Charles Vance.
Genesis Lythe Needs To Be A Captain
Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) declares that she "needs to be a Captain." Genesis is a Dar Sha cadet, and her species is new to the Star Trek universe. Why does Genesis need to be a starship Captain, and will she achieve her career goal in Starfleet?
It's refreshing to hear a young cadet have a clear intention of becoming a starship captain. Star Trek's TV series primarily revolve around Captains as their central heroes. Genesis may be the next Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) or Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) in the making.
Klingons Are Fully Back In Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has a Klingon cadet in Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané), which is the first time since the Rick Berman era of Star Trek that a Klingon is a main character. Klingons have made appearances in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds but have been mainly in the background after Star Trek: Discovery's controversial revamp.
Tarima Sadal Has Scary Betazoid Powers
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has a romance between Caleb Mir and Tarima Sadal (Zoe Steiner), the daughter of the President of Betazed. This seems to be the central romance in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Betazoids have psychic and empathic abilities, but Tarima reveals she sometimes can't control her powers. When Tarima loses control of her abilties, it's truly frightening. Will Tarima ultimately become a threat in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?
Nus Braka Wants Revenge On Chancellor Ake
Nus Braka and Captain Ake seem to go way back in their animosity, possibly even before Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's inciting flashback event of Caleb Mir's mother's abduction. There's a hatred Braka has for Ake that needs to be explained.
One confrontation between Captain Ake and Nus Braka has the Chancellor blowing a hologram of the villain away. This indicates that Nus Braka is able to travel to places using holograms and may be holed up in a secret location, possibly where Caleb Mir's mother is being held.
The USS Athena Gets Into Starship Battles
The USS Athena isn't just a starship, it's also Starfleet Academy itself. The starship becomes the Academy's campus when it docks in San Francisco. As Caleb Mir discovers, the USS Athena's transporters can also give instant haircuts.
However, the USS Athena isn't a mere training vessel. It's a full-on starship capable of combat even when piloted by cadets. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy shows the starship school in a pitched outer space battle, giving the cadets hands-on experience in life or death situations.
Someone Dies Frozen In Outer Space
In space, all warriors are cold warriors, and this is the case in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as well. The trailer shows someone frozen and dead from exposure in outer space, possibly during one of the firefights the USS Athena finds itself in.
Judging by the uniform and boots of the frozen body, it could be a Starfleet Academy cadet who meets a tragic death in the unforgiving cold of deep space. This could mean that not all of Starfleet Academy's cadets survive what's to come in season 1.
Starfleet Academy's cadets are gathered to see Earth surrounded by various Starfleet vessels, including what looks like the Archer Space Dock.
Starfleet's presence on Earth means that the United Earth government has fully accepted the United Federation of Planets, as the United Earth President (Stacey Abrams) promised at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 4.
When The Burn decimated warp drive in the galaxy, United Earth booted the Federation and Starfleet and became an isolationist world. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the welcome home to Earth for the Federation and Starfleet after over a century.
