A Star Trek fan joins the team
One thing is clear, the new Paramount is making good on its promise to invest in content and creatives. Following up on the big $7.7 billion UFC deal and $1.5 billion
South Park deal, over the last week the company has continued spending. Perhaps the biggest splash was signing brothers
Matt and Ross Duffer to a four-year deal, snagging the team behind the megahit
Stranger Things away from Netflix. Paramount’s new streaming chief Cindy Holland first greenlit
Stranger Things when she was Netflix, and she was key to poaching the pair. Over the last week the studio also
won a Hollywood bidding war for a comedy spec script called
Bald Eagles, showing the studio is putting its private equity and Ellison money to use to build up more content for what it intends to be an expanded film slate.
Perhaps the most significant move over the week for Star Trek comes with news of a new hire as Paramount poached former Sony TV and Apple TV+ executive Chris Parnell to be the new EVP for Paramount+ originals. Parnell has been involved in developing a number of genre projects, including working with former Trek vet Ron Moore on
For All Mankind for Sony and Apple. Here is the key bit of reporting from
Deadline about Parnell:
A well-liked executive, Parnell is known for his passion for everything comic book/genre/geek stuff-related, which he would apply to signature Paramount IP including Paramount+’s Star Trek franchise, which the streamer’s new leadership is looking to further expand.
So based on Deadline’s report, Paramount is looking to expand the slate of Star Trek for Paramount+ which has been cut down to just two shows: the upcoming
Starfleet Academy debuting in 2026, and
Strange New Worlds, which will end with a fifth season, likely arriving in 2027. We have also been reporting on
several Star Trek pitches that Parnell could be fielding in his new job.
