Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 announced a summer 2025 release window, which could soon make it the longest time Star Trek fans have waited to resolve a cliffhanger. Strange New Worlds season 3 was intended to premiere in 2024, but production was delayed for 7 months by 2023's combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Production finally commenced in December 2023, with filming of Strange New Worlds season 3 completed in May 2024. And it's been a long wait ever since.Before Paramount+'s Star Trek streaming era, audiences did not have to endure years-long waits to resolve Star Trek TV cliffhangers. In the 1980s and 1990s, TV series reliably wrapped up a season in the spring and returned in the fall. Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation only had to wait 4 months to find out what happened to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) after he was assimilated by the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II." However, the streaming era now typically forces audiences to wait years for new seasons of TV series.
Strange New Worlds Season 3 May Be Star Trek's Longest Cliffhanger Resolution
It Depends On What "Summer 2025" Means
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's trailer announced that new episodes will premiere on Paramount+ in "summer 2025." Depending on what "summer 2025" means and when Strange New Worlds season 3 will actually premiere, it could mean a full 2 years (or more) since the end of Strange New Worlds season 2, which was released August 10, 2023, on Paramount+. Any premiere date after August 10, 2025, would make Strange New Worlds season 3 the longest Star Trek fans have had to wait to resolve a cliffhanger.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 ended with the nail-biter of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) faced with orders to retreat from the Gorn after the alien reptiles captured members of the USS Enterprise crew. Fans have patiently waited to find out what happens next. At New York Comic-Con in October 2024, Paramount+ released a clip of the first few minutes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's premiere, and that only increased fans' desire to find out what happens next with this cliffhanger.
One of the factors contributing to the extended wait for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is the reduced amount of new Star Trek content on Paramount+. Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks have all ended, with Star Trek: Prodigy warping to Netflix. After Paramount+ premiered the streaming movie Star Trek: Section 31 in January, Strange New Worlds season 3 is the only Star Trek they have left in 2025, so releasing it in the summer (which could mean August or even September, since summer technically ends on September 22) has logic to it.
