Star Trek: Everything We Know About Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy has reopened its doors, dusted off its shuttle landing pads, and turned on its transporters, but campus would be a little lonely (and rather redundant) without the freshest of fresher — freshman for the North Americans — cadets. Those who diced with death with Tilly on Kokytos might be second, third, fourth years, or graduated by now, but that recruitment pitch has already worked to entice at least five newbies (that we know of for the moment).

We doubt the actors were put through the same hyper-rigorous entrance exam — and not to forget the application procedure before it — as Wesley Crusher and other horrendously stressed hopefuls in Coming of Age. It's a tough industry, but even a Zaldan would be a bit miffed by that kind of audition process. In fact, for the fortunate young five, revealed to us in groups of three and two on 9 and 18 July 2024 respectively, the experience looked to be a far more joyful one.

Played during the SDCC24 Academy panel, a decidedly lovely "Welcoming the Cast" clip showed us the five cadet actors — Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner — as they were told by Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau that they had got the part. Teasingly, Kurtzman also revealed at SDCC that, in terms of cadets, they were "one [cast member] short of being complete".