Star Trek: Strange New Worlds casts two iconic franchise characters from original series for final season
These high-profile castings complete Kirk's future crew, as Pike's time in the Captain's chair nears its end.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is reviving two more iconic characters from The Original Series in its fifth season, with Dr Leonard 'Bones' McCoy and Hikaru Sulu set to appear in the grand finale.
The prequel takes place at an earlier point in the Trek timeline, following USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew on a wide variety of unpredictable missions and misadventures.
Strange New Worlds already has several connections to The Original Series, including younger versions of Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Kirk (Paul Wesley) and Scotty (Martin Quinn).
But the iconic crew is set to be completed in the fifth and final season with the arrival of Bones and Sulu, who will be played by Hollywood star Thomas Jane and theatre actor Kai Murakami, respectively.
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Jane is the better known of the two, having played Marvel antihero The Punisher (in a 2004 feature, associated video game and 2012 short film), as well as Ray Drecker in HBO drama Hung and Detective Joe Miller in The Expanse.
He takes up the mantle of Bones from original star DeForest Kelley as well as The Boys star Karl Urban, who played the role across three JJ Abrams-produced film blockbusters between 2009 and 2016.
On the other hand, Murakami is making his television debut in the role of Sulu, but has previously performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in their acclaimed adaptation of Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro.
Sulu was originally played by George Takei, who recently reprised the role for an audio drama, while John Cho (The Sympathizer) took on the role for the aforementioned modern Star Trek movie trilogy.
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According to Deadline, the actors will only appear in the final episode of Strange New Worlds season 5, which might signify that the show will lead directly into The Original Series, with Pike handing the keys to Kirk and his crew.
Filming on the fourth and fifth seasons was carried out back-to-back, with the final scenes recording earlier this month. It's likely we'll see the concluding chapters in 2026 and 2027 respectively, but specific release dates are still to be announced.
Watch the UK trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3:
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Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
