Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter, whose previous credits include The Piano, The Big Sick (pictured above), and the voice of Elasti-Girl in The Incredibles, is joining the Star Trek universe as a captain and chancellor in the upcoming series, Starfleet Academy.
Variety broke the news, though Paramount+ has since confirmed, that Hunter will be the head of the Academy who oversees both the thirty-second-century school’s faculty and cadets.
“It feels like we’ve spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius,” co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau told Variety in a statement. “To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on Starfleet Academy is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of Star Trek.”
Hunter will most likely join Star Trek: Discovery’s Tilly (Mary Wiseman) on the call sheet, and chances are good that other Discovery characters, such as Doug Jones’ Saru, might make an appearance as well.
The series is set to go into production in Toronto, Canada this summer, and the set will boast, according to Variety, “the largest contiguous set ever constructed for a Star Trek series, a central academic atrium that will span two stories and include an amphitheater, classrooms, a mess hall, and an idyllic walkway lined with trees.”
No news yet on when we can matriculate to Starfleet Academy on Paramount+.
