Development
After joining the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024) as a consulting producer and writer, Nicholas Meyer revealed in June 2017 that he was also working on a second, unrelated Star Trek project. Meyer previously wrote and directed the films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). [11] [12] In May 2018, Meyer referred to the project as a "stand-alone Star Trek-related trilogy", and said it was on hold due to the heated relationship between companies CBS and Viacom. As Viacom is the parent-company of Paramount Pictures, the studio behind the Star Trek films, CBS was not able to use content from those films at that time, and Meyer's project was rumored to be a prequel to The Wrath of Khan. [13] The next month, after becoming sole showrunner of Discovery, Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. This included a limited series based around the character Khan Noonien Singh and his storyline in The Wrath of Khan, in which he was portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán. [14] Terry Matalas discussed becoming showrunner of the series with Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman, before he joined the series Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023) instead. [15]
The project was still on hold in November 2018, when Meyer revealed that it was a three-episode miniseries titled Ceti Alpha V, named for the planet that Khan and his followers live on before the events of The Wrath of Khan. He was unsure then if the project would be moving forward, and said CBS was concerned with how expensive the series would be to produce relative to its short running time. [16] In August 2019, Viacom announced that it was merging with CBS, bringing the film and television sides of the Star Trek franchise under the control of one company, ViacomCBS, for the first time since they split in 2006. [17] ViacomCBS announced in September 2020 that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021. [18] In February 2021, Kurtzman said a new series was unlikely to be added to Paramount+'s slate of Star Trek Universe series until one of the existing five came to an end. [19] A month later, Meyer said the project had originally been suggested to him by Kurtzman and he had thought it was a great idea that he was excited to pursue. He was still interested in making the project, but expressed concern at potentially having to extend it beyond the three episode plan which he felt would make it like the television series Gilligan's Island (1964–1967). [20] In May 2022, Kurtzman said there were discussions about the Star Trek Universe expanding to other media such as video games and dramatic podcasts, [21] and a month later Meyer said he was negotiating a deal to turn Ceti Alpha V into a podcast that he would write and possibly direct. [22]
At a Star Trek Day event on September 8, 2022, Meyer officially announced the scripted podcast as Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V, with Kurtzman, Aaron Baiers, Trevor Roth, and Rod Roddenberry as executive producers. It was set to premiere in early 2023, [1] but no more news was released by November of that year. Meyer said the project had "a kitchen filled with cooks", it was being expanded to nine or ten half-hour episodes, and "whatever timeline we had went out the window some months ago". He added that casting would begin and a composer would be hired once some "behind-the-scenes issues" were resolved, and there was a chance that the podcast could lead to a television or film version if it was successful. [23] In February 2025, the project was re-confirmed as an audio series titled Star Trek: Khan. Longtime Star Trek writers Kirsten Beyer and David Mack had written the series based on Meyer's story, with Fred Greenhalgh directing, Robyn Johnson as supervising producer, and Realm as the production studio and distributor. Beyer, Greenhalgh, and Molly Barton were added as executive producers by then. [2] [8] Mack said he and Beyer were "tasked with developing the series from the core elements of Nick's story" and wrote the scripts in early 2024. He confirmed that the series would consist of nine half-hour episodes. [24]
Casting and voice recording
Casting was underway by late August 2024, when Meyer expected voice recording to begin within a year. [25] Recording was completed by the end of February 2025, when Naveen Andrews was announced as the voice of Khan and Wrenn Schmidt as the voice of Marla McGivers. Andrews replaced Ricardo Montalbán from "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan, while Schmidt replaced Madlyn Rhue who portrayed McGivers in "Space Seed". [2] That July, more of the cast was announced: George Takei and Tim Russ reprising their respective roles of Hikaru Sulu and Tuvok from previous Star Trek media; Sonya Cassidy as new character Rosalind Lear; and supporting cast members Olli Haaskivi as Delmonda, Maury Sterling as Ivan, Mercy Malick as Ursula, and Zuri Washington as Madot. [10]
