The Star Trek franchise is now spread across three separate streaming services, meaning that fans may wish to have a road map to find where they can watch their favorite Trek shows and movies. For clarity, this split is for Star Trek fans in the US, as the specifics of geo-blocking and streaming rights vary from country to country. However, US fans aren’t alone in having multiple ways to access the franchise. For example, Star Trek fans in the UK can still watch all the legacy shows on Netflix until their streaming rights lapse, while Paramount+ has everything bar Star Trek: Prodigy.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Paramount+ holds the majority of Star Trek, with some notable exceptions. Paramount+ controversially removed Star Trek: Prodigy when the show was canceled in 2023. At the start of 2024, the pre-Abrams Star Trek movies have a new streaming home as part of an existing deal with another streamer. With some confusion over which shows and movies are on which streamer, it’s a good time to look at the three different streaming homes for Star Trek in 2024.
Only Chris Pine’s Star Trek Movies Remain On Paramount Plus, Fans Unhappy
10 of the 13 Star Trek movies have left Paramount+ and moved to Max, which has drawn the ire of Star Trek fans online.
Every Star Trek TV Series Except Star Trek: Prodigy Is On Paramount+
Paramount+ subscribers can watch everything from Star Trek: The Original Series all the way to its 2020s prequel series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It’s the perfect way for Star Trek fans to draw links across the franchise, allowing subscribers to travel from the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard‘s 24th century to the far future of Star Trek: Discovery. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery premieres on Paramount+ in April, as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery embark on an intergalactic treasure hunt.
Later in 2024, Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 will premiere in late Summer/early Fall, picking up on Lower Decks‘ season 4’s cliffhanger ending. As Lower Decks is a love letter to the franchise’s prolific 1990s period, fans have a chance to prepare for more deep-cut references via revisiting 90s classics like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Paramount+. Showrunner Mike McMahan has also expressed his desire to show some love to Scott Bakula’s Star Trek: Enterprise in Lower Decks season 5, making it a perfect time to revisit the prequel show on Paramount+.
Fans of animation can also revisit Lower Decks‘ predecessor, Star Trek: The Animated Series, which, despite fan arguments over its canonicity, takes pride of place among the other Trek shows on Paramount+. Star Trek‘s other animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy isn’t on Paramount+, owing to its cancelation in 2023. The absence of the backdoor Star Trek: Voyager sequel show on Paramount+ does mean that fans of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her heroic crew will have to look elsewhere to see how their story continued after returning to the Alpha Quadrant.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Movies Are On Paramount+
J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine’s Star Trek movies are also available on Paramount+, representing the franchise’s Kelvin timeline. The Kelvin timeline trilogy begins with 2009’s Star Trek, in which a crew of young cadets become the heroic crew of the USS Enterprise while foiling the plans of Nero (Eric Bana) in an alternate timeline of his own creation. And then, Star Trek into Darkness remakes the beloved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with mixed results, casting Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan Noonien-Singh, and introducing Alice Eve as a young Dr. Carol Marcus.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies featured Leonard Nimoy’s final appearances as Spock, who acted as a mentor to his younger self, played by Zachary Quinto. The third movie, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, paid tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy, and celebrated the franchise’s 50th anniversary. With all three of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies available on Paramount+, fans have the chance to compare the performances of the exceptional Kelvin timeline cast with their Star Trek: The Original Series predecessors. In doing so, they can see how perfect Abrams’ Star Trek movie cast were.
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Star Trek Beyond introduced Sofia Boutella as Jaylah, but it’s Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon that fulfilled Boutella’s potential in a way Star Trek hasn’t.
6 Star Trek: The Original Series Movies & 4 Star Trek: The Next Generation Movies Are On Max
10 Star Trek movies are currently streaming on Max and are no longer available on Paramount+. All six of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies and the four Star Trek: The Next Generation movies switched to Max on New Year’s Day 2024. A similar thing happened before, when Max streamed the 10 TOS and TNG movies on the service between November 2022 and July 2023, suggesting that this is likely a temporary arrangement. Until further notice, however, fans in the US who wish to stream classics like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or Star Trek: First Contact will have to do so via Max.
It’s worth pointing out that distribution and streaming rights are different for movies than they are for TV shows, which could explain the temporary agreement between Paramount+ and Max. Many of the Star Trek movies were big commercial hits that had broad crossover appeal for theater audiences. It makes sense, therefore, for a streamer like Max to pick such broadly enjoyable Trek movies like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to feature on the service during the cold and miserable winter months.
Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming on Netflix
After being canceled by Paramount+, Star Trek: Prodigy spent the second half of 2023 looking for a new streaming home. Prodigy‘s cancelation was particularly surprising because a second season was already well into development at the time that the axe fell. The prospect of 20 brand-new episodes of a Star Trek show must have sweetened the deal for Netflix, who bought the streaming rights for Star Trek: Prodigy seasons 1 and 2. Prodigy premiered on Netflix on Christmas Day 2023, and all 20 episodes of season 1 are available to stream on the service.
Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 will premiere later in 2024, although it’s unclear if it will have a weekly release schedule or be dropped on Netflix in one go. Prodigy season 2 is one of the big Star Trek highlights of 2024 so it does feel odd that it will be taking place on Netflix, rather than on Paramount+. Regardless, the wealth of Star Trek shows and movies available to stream across multiple platforms highlights the broad appeal of the franchise to viewers new and old.
