Star Trek: Everything We Know About Starfleet Academy

Not only is twice Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti in it, as a life-long Star Trek fan, he's always wanted to be in it. As he told the Portland Mercury back in 2011,

I really would love to play a Klingon. It's like, goddammit, will I ever get to play a Klingon.

Giamatti would reiterate his desire to be in Star Trek (as a Klingon or otherwise) to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show in 2019, and then again to Moovy TV journalist Johan Albrechtsen in January this year (2024) during press for The Holdovers. Albrechtsen put his mek'leth where his mouth was by translating "I'm not drinking any Merlot" (line from the movie Sideways) into Klingon — Merlot vItIhutlhbe — for Giamatti to repeat back in warrior spirit. It was apparently that interview in particular which got Giamatti the job! "We saw this […] and we called his agent," Alex Kurtzman told the crowd during the Starfleet Academy panel at SDCC24.

Academy co-showrunner and executive producer Noga Landau also revealed during the SDCC panel that Giamatti had been given the choice between several different characters. Thinking they would only get the busy actor for one episode, Giamatti in fact chose the (main) villain, a role which spans the entire first season. All we know apart from that, via Variety, is that said villain "has a sinister connection to the past of one of the cadets". Giamatti could still get to switch out the Merlot for bloodwine, too, perhaps especially given the fact we've not seen targ hide nor hair of the Klingons yet in the 32nd century!