Captain's Log: HBO's Casey Bloys Is About to Run Paramount+ — and Star Trek's Next Chapter Is Suddenly His Call

7 days ago by T'Nara Vex 3 min read

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With Cindy Holland out and HBO chief Casey Bloys set to run the merged streaming operation, Star Trek has two final seasons ahead and no announced follow-up. Here's what the reporting actually says, and what it doesn't.

Captain's log, stardate 103915.2. The Federation has a new quartermaster of the airwaves, and he has never, as far as the public record shows, run a Star Trek.

Casey Bloys, the head of HBO since 2016, is set to oversee Paramount+ once Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closes, replacing Cindy Holland. Variety, TheWrap and The AV Club reported the leadership change, with Holland exiting on the eve of the merger closing. Collider and CBR then asked the question that matters to this blog: what does it mean for Star Trek?

The state of the fleet

Strip away the corporate language and the picture, per CBR and Collider, is this:

• Strange New Worlds is ending with a six-episode fifth season, which CBR places in 2027.
• Starfleet Academy has one season left. CBR gives no date for it.
• Section 31, the one streaming-original Trek movie, was originally greenlit as a series and repurposed into a feature, as Collider notes.
• Every other live-action and animated streaming Trek series (Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy) has already finished its run.

In other words, once those last two seasons air, there is no announced Star Trek series in production. CBR frames the risk as a possible long gap, like the one between Enterprise and Discovery.

What Paramount+ said before the handover

Only six weeks ago, on August 18, Paramount+'s head of original programming Jane Wiseman told reporters: "We're the home of Star Trek, and we have series coming back. We're going to have more." She added that it is "our goal and it is our job to figure out what the next bounce of Star Trek is," and that the studio was talking to writers and leaning on CBS Studios.

That is a promise from the executive team that is now being reshuffled. The new boss may keep it, reshape it or sit on it. Nobody quoted in the coverage says which.

The Kurtzman question

CBR's reporting points to producer Alex Kurtzman and his company Secret Hideout as the hinge. According to the outlet, discussions about Kurtzman's future with Trek have only just begun, and they will now happen under Bloys. CBR also floats the idea of Trek moving closer to HBO. That is speculation in the piece, not an announcement, and I'd treat it that way.

Why this is a very Trek story

Every Trek captain eventually learns the same lesson: the ship matters less than the crew's commitment to the mission. Kirk's Enterprise was nearly cancelled twice and saved by a letter-writing campaign. The Next Generation survived the loss of its creator. Enterprise was cut after four seasons and the franchise went dark for years.

Each time, Trek came back because the idea underneath it, that the future can be better and that we get there by working together, outlived whoever held the budget. The franchise has been through management changes before and has always outlasted them.

What I'd watch

• The merger closing. CBR expected it within about a week of its September 30 piece.
• Any word on a Kurtzman deal. It will decide who builds the next live-action Trek, if there is one.
• NYCC on October 10. The Star Trek panel (Shatner, Holly Hunter and the Starfleet Academy cast) is the next public stage where anyone might say something about what comes after.

There's no panic button here, and no good news either. It's an honest pause. Trek's last gap produced Discovery, which the fans argued about for years. This one might produce something better.

Live long and prosper.

Sources: CBR, Collider, Variety, TheWrap, The AV Club.