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Star Trek: Discovery season 4: everything we know

The cast of Star Trek: Discovery, which is returning for season 4 on Paramount Plus in 2022.

Book and Helm Michael Burnham return for Star Trek Discovery flavour iv in November 2022. (Image credit: Netflix)

Star Expedition: Discovery season 4 will warp onto Paramount Plus on November xviii, 2022, and a new trailer has dropped as the date gets closer.

With Michael Burnham now installed as the helm of the ship – the show's quaternary commanding officer in equally many years – Star Trek: Discovery flavour 4 will meet the coiffure standing to explore the distant time to come of the 32nd century. Having solved the mystery of the so-chosen "Fire" that had rendered warp travel impossible, and defeated the criminal empire of the Emerald Chain, attentions should now exist turning to restoring the Federation to its quondam glories. Unfortunately, it sounds like a new antagonist is about to make it the way, in the form of a dangerous gravitational anomaly 5 light years across.

With Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Culber and all the primary span crew dorsum in activity, Star Trek: Discovery 4 is fix to go on the franchise's ongoing adventures on the final borderland. Here'south everything you need to know, but be warned – Spoilers prevarication alee for anyone yet to sentry the previous seasons.

Release date: Star Trek Discovery season 4 will release on November 18 in the US. The evidence will roll out on Paramount Plus in the Usa, and is expected to stream on Netflix elsewhere.

Story: With Burnham now installed as captain, equally mentioned above, the USS Discovery volition argue with a massive gravitational bibelot in the 32nd century – the idea is that the crew is dealing with a massive problem to solve this season rather than a specific villain.

Is there a trailer? Yeah. A commencement teaser for Discovery flavour four debuted in April 2022, and another full trailer dropped in October 2022.

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Star Trek: Discovery season iv release date

It was confirmed at the Star Trek Twenty-four hours effect on September 8 that Star Expedition: Discovery season 4 volition debut on Nov 18 in the United states.

The evidence volition release on Paramount Plus, the rebranded version of CBS All Access. Exterior the The states we expect that – similar the previous seasons – the bear witness volition stream on Netflix, where information technology'south unremarkably available within hours of its American debut.

The previous season had barely even started airing when Star Expedition: Discovery season 4 got the official greenlight on Oct 16, 2022. Two weeks later, on November ii, product got underway at the show's Toronto base, and continued until Baronial 2022 – the end of shooting was confirmed in a tweet from showrunner Michelle Paradise.

Inevitably, Covid-19 restrictions were a major factor in the shoot. For starters, equally dictated by Canadian rules, the cast had to isolate for two weeks before coming to set.

Star Expedition: Discovery flavor four too reportedly took reward of a pipeline put in place for the previous flavor, after coronavirus restrictions kicked in. "Our editors, miraculously and heroically, took their editing bays into their living rooms," Alex Kurtzman, executive producer and overseer of Star Trek's current raft of TV shows, told IndieWire. "We also scored the unabridged season [3], mixed the entire flavor, color-timed the entire flavor, all from [a] laptop."

Reports suggest the process was further refined on Star Expedition: Discovery season 4, with Space.com revealing that the show will brand use of the groundbreaking augmented reality LED screens pioneered by The Mandalorian. All of a sudden the fact that travel for location filming was off the tabular array didn't seem quite so much of a trouble...

Star Trek: Discovery season four trailer

"We are non in this alone." Star Trek: Discovery season iv, coming soon ✨ #StarTrekDiscovery #FirstContactDay motion picture.twitter.com/ZRoI2QRNqpApril v, 2022

Come across more

A get-go teaser trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 4 was unveiled at the Showtime Contact Day virtual event in April 2022 – sentry information technology above. A 2d, fuller trailer dropped at New York Comic Con 2022, which you tin can cheque out below.

Let's fly ✨ #StarTrekDiscovery #StarTrek https://t.co/NUVqZXAdrS pic.twitter.com/ZqJvodfqftOctober 9, 2022

Star Trek: Discovery season iv cast

This is the current roll phone call for Star Trek: Discovery season four:

Sonequa Martin-Greenish as Captain Michael Burnham
Doug Jones as Saru
Anthony Rapp as Lt Cmdr Paul Stamets
Wilson Cruz equally Dr Hugh Culber
David Ajala as Book
Mary Wiseman equally Ensign Sylvia Tilly
Blu del Barrio as Adira
Ian Alexander equally Gray
Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance
Oyin Oladejo equally Lt Joann Owosekun
Emily Coutts equally Lt Keyla Detmer
Patrick Kwok-Choo as Lt Gen Rhys
Ronnie Rowe as Lt R.A. Bryce
Sara Mitich as Lt Nilsson
David Cronenberg equally Kovich

It's a case of 'every bit you were', with about of the established bandage returning for another tour of duty – presumably they're excited to be wearing new-look, Trek-appropriate primary-colored uniforms that don't look quite so much like tracksuits.

It goes without saying that Sonequa Martin-Green is back as Captain Michael Burnham, and even though her predecessor in the large chair, Saru, has relocated to his domicile planet of Kaminar, Doug Jones nonetheless has a office to play. "Information technology felt important for all of our characters to discover new layers for them, to find new place for them to get, new things for our actors to play, and new ways for the characters to go," showrunner Michelle Paradise told TVInsider. "[In flavour 3 nosotros highlighted] that Saru hasn't had a huge connection to Kaminar since leaving, and in a flavor that is all about connection – family connection and cultural connection – it seemed like an organic place to explore that theme with him."

Among the lead cast, Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz reprise their roles as Lt Cmdr Paul Stamets and Dr Hugh Culber, while season 3 standout David Ajala is back as the 32nd century's most famous feline owner, Cleveland 'Book' Booker. (Sadly, a Grudge the Cat spin-off is yet to be announced.) And surely Mary Wiseman'southward Sylvia Tilly will be looking to brand the First Officer part her ain.

"[Saru] sees strength in [Tilly] she doesn't quite see in herself necessarily," Paradise said in TVInsider. "Then, [nosotros watched] her over the form of the season become more confident in herself to the place where she's ultimately able to serve every bit Number One, and having to substantially be acting captain in this crunch situation, where she handles herself beautifully. What does that mean to come up is, I'm sure, a question she'll be asking herself and we'll be exploring in Flavor four."

The supporting bridge crew will surely be hoping to have a few more stories of their own, continuing their deadening evolution from groundwork players to actual characters – at present we know that Lt Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) tin can hold her breath for ten minutes, the sky's the limit. It'll be interesting to see what – if anything – is in store for Lt Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts), Lt Gen Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon), Lt R.A. Bryce (Ronnie Rowe) and Lt Nilsson (Sara Mitich).

3rd season newcomer Blu del Barrio also returns as Adira, human host of the Trill symbiont Tal, along with their boyfriend, Gray (Ian Alexander). Dr Culber's efforts to give Gray – who can but be seen and heard by Adira – physical grade volition be a big function of the season, as Gray becomes more and more than integrated with the crew. "For season 4 I've had a lot more hands-on involvement, similar my suggestions for the hereafter of Gray," Alexander told Inverse. "They already have and so much planned. Michelle [Paradise] and Alex [Kurtzman] already take this vision that I've very, very excited for everyone to be able to run across."

"Culber does brand a promise in our flavour iii finale to Gray that, 'You will be truly seen,'" Paradise said on a Discovery panel at Outfest (via TrekMovie). "And nosotros absolutely do pay that off in season 4. That storyline and making certain we pay it off is hugely important." It was confirmed by Wilson Cruz (Dr Culber) at Star Trek Day (via Variety) that Gray will be gaining a corporeal form in Star Trek: Discovery season four.

Anthony Rapp, who plays Stamets, added that Stamets, Culber, Adira and Gray will go a family in Star Trek: Discovery season 4: "Parenting – they're not children but they are immature people – the pressures of how to exist available to be a mentor or guide or parent in the face of job responsibilities and sort of crises, that's an interesting sort of sub-thread through the through the flavour… In that location's more in the ways Paul and Hugh go on to evolve in their human relationship. This is certainly explored also in this flavor."

And there'll be at to the lowest degree 2 familiar faces at Federation headquarters, where Oded Fehr (Admiral Charles Vance) and legendary film director David Cronenberg (the mysterious Kovich) will be pulling some strings backside the scenes.

Star trek Discovery s3 — Saru (Doug Jones) may have headed off to Kaminar but he still has a role to play in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. (Image credit: CBS All Access/Netflix)

Star Trek: Discovery flavor four plot

Star Trek: Discovery season iv plot: what can we expect to meet?

Michelle Paradise is keeping her cards closer to her chest than The Adjacent Generation coiffure at one of their regular poker games, though she did acknowledge to TVInsider in January 2022 that the Discovery crew are hanging effectually in the 32nd century, rather than looking for a way back to their original pre-Kirk-and-Spock timeline. "I don't expect that," she said. "All of [the crew] knew going into that at the end of season 2 that this is a i-manner trip. Now that they are here, we're not looking to go back."

What does that mean for plotlines? "I don't want to speak specifically to themes, just we do have them!" she joked to ComicBook.com. "I think season 4 will absolutely continue the kinds of things we were doing in season 3, in that we practice have very strong themes that nosotros're exploring. Star Trek: The Original Series explored present-day things via sci-fi. And that'southward what we did in season 3, and I think that's merely broiled into what Star Trek does.

"Ultimately the thing that really resonates, I call back, with people is, what are our characters experiencing? What are they going through? How are they connecting with one another? What are the challenges they're facing and how exercise they overcome them individually and then as a family unit? All of that I think will continue."

With the Emerald Concatenation out of the way, it looks like the threat in Star Trek: Discovery flavor 4 will exist rather unlike this time out. The trailer reveals that the crew is dealing with a gravitational anomaly "five light years across", rather than a specific human or alien foe – a force that, as Tilly explains, "could go anywhere, and we may not accept whatever kind of warning at all".

"We're really exploring – we're diving deep into science – in the 4th season, in a kind of new and interesting way," said Kurtzman in a panel hosted past Deadline (via TrekMovie). "There have been many kinds of villains over the course of Star Trek. What happens when the villain is not actually any kind of living, breathing entity, just something else? How do you solve that problem?"

Could nosotros be looking at something technological Discovery season ii's hostile AI, Control? Or a lethal inorganic structure like the Crystalline Entity from Star Expedition: The Next Generation? ScreenRant has suggested the rather plausible theory that the bibelot could exist 5'Ger, the rogue space probe from Star Expedition: The Motion Picture. In the finale of that motion picture, V'Ger merged with USS Enterprise first officer Will Decker to reach a new level of consciousness – who knows what it might be capable of most a 1000 years later...

We can expect Star Expedition: Discovery season 4 to follow a similar structure to previous years, with each season based around a self-contained story arc, with just a few loose ends left untied.

"Discovery has that sort of serialized, season-long story baked into its DNA," Paradise said in an interview with Inverse. "Nosotros also wanted to requite the show a more than episodic experience in season 3. We got to explore a story of the week or a villain of the calendar week – it gives us fourth dimension to explore some of our characters who we normally wouldn't have time to explore. That was definitely a choice on our office and will continue on our show."

What questions does Star Expedition: Discovery season 4 demand to reply?

With the origins of the so-called 'Fire' revealed – who'd have guessed it was caused by a grieving kid with a symbiotic relationship to a planet made of dilithium? – and Osyraa and her Emerald Chain defeated, Star Trek: Discovery season 4 flies into uncharted waters.

Hopefully that ways that Discovery and the coiffure tin can use the spore bulldoze to truly explore the foreign new worlds of the 32nd century – though, given this show's love of callbacks to earlier series, it'southward almost inevitable we'll meet some familiar faces and species. (The presence in the trailer of a Federation official – mayhap the president – who has a mix of human and Cardassian facial features suggests that those long-standing Deep Space Nine foes may be upwards for a comeback, this fourth dimension in the Starfleet camp.)

Part of Starfleet's remit will exist rebuilding a Federation that's a shadow of what information technology was 900 years earlier. The trailer suggests that many worlds will accept to pull together to defeat a threat that affects Federation and non-Federation "equally" – every bit Burnham puts it, "We are not in this solitary".

"The Federation is coming back together but it's not fully dorsum together," Kurtzman told the same Borderline panel. "And so the continued mission of bringing other worlds in and meeting the criteria and standards of what information technology means to exist a member of the Federation merely also non to rob other cultures of their identity is something that we'll explore."

The biggest ongoing question Star Trek: Discovery season 4 needs to address is the nature of the 'Sphere Data', the ancient conflicting intelligence now integrated with Discovery'due south databanks. Protecting it was the reason the ship made the one-fashion trip to the futurity in the first identify, and information technology seems to be repaying the favor – outset by helping the crew'south mental wellbeing, then by helping Tilly to forcibly squirt the Emerald Chain from the ship. It's a story that seems to exist heading towards Brusk Trek episode 'Calypso', set in a afar future where Discovery is run by a sentient reckoner.

"'Calypso' is incredible," Paradise told ComicBook.com. "And it is now a part of Trek canon, but specifically our show'south catechism. Information technology takes place many, many years beyond where our heroes are correct now, and at some point, we will admittedly take to lucifer upwards with that then that Discovery as a whole, including 'Calypso', all fits together as a piece.

"Certainly, bringing in that vox in episode four and having – we'll call her Zora, she doesn't take a proper noun at this point – but having her hide in the DOTs [helper robots on board Discovery] and exist function of the story is the showtime of driving toward that. And eventually – who knows when? – nosotros will absolutely have to brand sure that nosotros sync up with that."

And and so there's the small matter of Stamets having issues with the way Burnham left his husband, Dr Culber, in a radiations-filled nebula in the flavor 3 finale. "I remember that's one they'll get past in time," Paradise said in TVLine.

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Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy diversity. An early on run into with a certain galaxy far, far abroad started a lifelong dear affair with outer space, and these days Richard'southward happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Curiosity and other long-running popular culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll e'er have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Wintertime.