Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been slowly been putting together the lead cast of characters that will eventually go on to lead The Original Series. Spock and Nyota Uhura have been part of the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive show since the beginning, various versions of James T. Kirk have been popping in and out since the Season 1 finale, and Montgomery “Scotty” Scott joined the USS Enterprise in Season 3 after being introduced in the Season 2 finale. Now it’s been announced who will play Hikaru Sulu and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in Strange New Worlds Season 5, and these castings have me crossing my fingers more tightly that the Kirk spinoff that’s talked about will happen.
As shared by Variety, Kai Murakami and Thomas Jane have been respectively cast as Sulu and Bones. They are the third set of actors to play these characters in live-action, preceded by George Takei and DeForrest Kelley from The Original Series and other projects set in Star Trek’s Prime Universe, and John Cho and Karl Urban in the movies set in the Kelvin timeline. However we won’t be spending that much time with Murakami’s Sulu and Jane’s Bones on Strange New Worlds, as they’re only appearing in the series finale.
With these castings, the core group of Original Series leads will almost completely be assembled by the time Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is over. The only character missing is Pavel Chekov, but considering that he’d still be an adolescent at this point in the Star Trek timeline, I doubt we’ll see him. But hey, I welcome being surprised and seeing Little Chekov if it makes sense. For now, I’m just thankful that the show found a way to squeeze in Sulu and Bones.
Kai Murakami, who’s performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and done performance capture work on video games like like Assassin’s Creed and Rise of the Ronin, is making his TV debut with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Thomas Jane, of course, is known for movies like Boogie Nights, Deep Blue Sea and The Punisher, and he also has previous sci-fi cred from playing Josephus Miller/The Investigator in The Expanse. Even though we’re a long ways off from seeing their performances in Strange New Worlds, I’m already hoping this won’t be the first and only time we see these two actors in the franchise.
Though Strange New Worlds will wrap up with its shortened fifth season (consisting of six episodes rather than 10), there’s been talk about the possibility of Paul Wesley’s Kirk getting his own spinoff following him captaining the Enterprise before the events of The Original Series. SNW showrunner Akiva Goldsman referred to such a spinoff as Star Trek: Year One, but described it as a “dream” to our own Mick Joest. He added that Strange New Worlds is “gonna end it in a way that we feel is indicative of completion and is satisfying, and that does bring us into the TOS era.”
Still, I’m hopeful that Murakami and Jane being recruited into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ last episode bodes well for Star Trek: Year One’s chances. After all, SNW only came about because Pike, Number One and Spock were so warmly received in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, so why can’t that same sort of thing happen here? It’ll be a long time until we learn if that’s truly in the cards though, because before we get to Strange New Worlds’ final season, Season 4 will air sometime on the 2026 TV schedule.
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