Latest news with #Klingon
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' First Look Reveals Paul Giamatti's Alien Villain
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors There's been a lot of chatter about "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" for a few years now, but thanks to Entertainment Weekly we finally have our first look at the upcoming series. The preview offers us glimpses of most of the main cast, including Paul Giamatti as a still unnamed alien villain. You can see Giamatti in full costume and makeup below. First look at Paul Giamatti as the villain in 'STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY' Giamatti has previously expressed that this dream role was to be in Star Trek. (Source: — DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 25, 2025 While executive producer Alex Kurtzman didn't say exactly what species Giamatti's character is supposed to be, he did let loose a potential hint. He mentioned there is a "Klingon hybrid species" in the series and that several of the characters on the show would be members of this new race. Asked if Giamatti's villain's species was the Klingon hybrid, Kurtzman answered, "It might be. We'll see." Read More: 'Resident Alien' Canceled at USA Giamatti managed to attract the "Star Trek" role when he was doing press for "The Holdovers." During a number of interviews, the star mentioned his hopes to one day be cast in "Star Trek." Kurtzman says that got his attention. Actor Paul Giamatti attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations Presents "Black Mirror" event at The Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists on May 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Actor Paul Giamatti attends the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations Presents "Black Mirror" event at The Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists on May 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, SAG-AFTRA Foundation "We looked at each other and we went, 'Is he kidding?! Well, let's call his agent and find out,'" Kurtzman said. "Within, I think, less than an hour, [his agent] called back and said he would love to meet." Giamatti was given the scripts for the first five episodes of "Starfleet Academy" and offered five different roles. It was Giamatti who chose to play the villain. While you often hear about actors who play alien characters complaining about their time in the makeup chair, Giamatti was apparently the exact opposite. "He had such a great time putting on the makeup. He loved sitting in the chair," Kurtzman recalled. "We were worried it was going to take too much time, but he said, 'No, I love it. It really lets me drop into the character.'" Back in March, Giamatti talked about how much he enjoyed playing the "Starfleet Academy villain, and how much the villain loved being bad. "He takes great pleasure in being the villain," Giamatti said. "He likes it. And it's very much a part of his thing that he's all 'Oh yeah, I'm the bad guy.'" He added, "To my mind, it feels very, very old-school 'Star Trek.' My character is a very fun villain; he reminds me of a combination of classic Trek villains. That's all I'll really say." More TV News: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Reboot Adds Five New Cast Members 'Friday the 13th' Prequel Series Casts Jason Vorhees 'Assassin's Creed' Live-Action Series Greenlit at Netflix
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Pulled Off Something Better Than a Classic Zombie Story
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds loves itself a trope, and sometimes that really is a 'for better or worse' kind of situation. So when this week's episode, 'Shuttle to Kenfori', revealed that its antagonists were some very fast-running plant-based zombies (The Last of Who?), I braced myself to hit all the very well-worn marks of the genre. But thankfully 'Kenfori' surprised me, and sidestepped a thematic cynicism to deliver a surprise sequel to one of season 2's standout episodes.'Shuttle to Kenfori' sees the Enterprise facing an off-the-books mission to a demilitarized zone between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, when it turns out that Captain Batel's not-so-happily-cured of her Gorn infestation as last week's premiere largely handwaved. Needing the aid of an exceedingly rare plant being studied by Federation agri-scientists before the outbreak of the war with the Klingons as Batel's only hope, the Enterprise is forced to watch from afar as it sends off Dr. M'Benga and Captain Pike to the abandoned research station on the titular planet to find the chimera plant before any passing Klingons discover Starfleet's flagship violating peacetime treaties. 'Shuttle to Kenfori' jukes and jives as it reveals its true layers. At first you think you're getting another episode about the aftermath of Discovery's Klingon war, especially with the pairing up of M'Benga and Pike to contrast the doctor's experience on the front lines with Pike's relative distance from the events of the war—and especially when a (wonderful-looking) Klingon D7 drops out of warp above the planet and sends a scouting party and promptly blows up their shuttle. But as Pike and M'Benga prepare for a shootout, we're hit with our first twist: the station's research into using the chimera planet to hybridize sustainable crops led to a viral outbreak that consumed all living matter on the planet, Federation and Klingon alike, leaving running, clawing, moss-covered zombies in its wake. So in quick succession, we get all the typical zombie story hallmarks. There's plenty of gross-out horror, from Klingon disruptors vaporizing the undead, to smushed body parts, and even one of the Klingon scouts getting swarmed and eaten alive—gut-ripping galore that doesn't go quite into full horror, but still makes you squirm. M'Benga admonishes Pike over his use of 'the z-word.' Tensions about Batel's conditions get put aside the second Pike stands next to a viewport that practically screams 'a zombie is about to slam on this for a jumpscare,' only for exactly that to happen. And then, of course, differences are put aside when the one remaining Klingon offers to work together with the Starfleet duo in order to try and make it off Kenfori alive. If this was all 'Shuttle to Kenfori' was, it might be a bit of a letdown. For as much as the show loves playing with genre tropes, at its best it does so by doing more than what 'Kenfori' does here with zombies, largely pointing at things and situations you'd expect and shrugging as it puts a veneer of Star Trek over it. But thankfully, there's another twist in store. When the Klingon, M'Benga, and Pike get to the top of the research station, with a Klingon scout ship waiting to take them to freedom, the Klingon reveals her true intent. It turns out their vessel wasn't patrolling the demilitarized zone, it was hunting for M'Benga—and that she is Bytha, the daughter of Ambassador Dak'Rah, the Klingon turncoat who had some very personal history with M'Benga and Nurse Chapel's wartime experience in last season's 'Under the Cloak of War'. Bytha, it turns out, wants vengeance, but not for the death of her father. She wants to kill the person who killed Dak'Rah—something 'Shuttle to Kenfori' has M'Benga be much more specific about, compared to the fascinatingly morally vague conclusion of 'Under the Cloak of War'—to try and regain her family's honor in the eyes of Klingon society, their house diminished for Dak'Rah's allegiance with the Federation after the war. On a dime, the episode turns again, now not about ticking off zombie tropes but bringing a fascinating extra layer to that prior episode, and to M'Benga again. But not in the way you'd expect 'a zombie episode' to be about that idea. If anything, especially by having M'Benga at least fully admit, to the shock of Pike, his role in Dak'Rah's death, you might think we're about to get into that whole 'humanity (and Klingons alike) are the real monsters' kind of deal, as M'Benga and Bytha engage in an honor duel to the death. But in a stark contrast to the season opener's view of the Gorn, instead we get a much better parallel to 'Arena' here than any of Strange New World's Gorn episodes have managed to deliver so far: a Starfleet hero dealing with their capacity for violence and darkness, acknowledging it, but also learning to go beyond it. Even as M'Benga remarks about his blasé relationship with his part in the Klingon War (he even says to Bytha, when she asks if he recognizes her, that he's killed so many Klingons that he pays no attention to specific identities), the duel becomes a fight for him to move past that history, the history that saw him lead to a violent continuation of that cycle in confronting and killing Dak'Rah, and show her that he has become a better person. In doing so, he is willing to accept an amicable understanding of Bytha, and of Klingon rituals around honor, sparing her from their duel but respecting that she chooses to sacrifice herself to the zombie hordes to buy M'Benga and Pike time to escape with their chimera plant sample in tow. It trades the dark ambiguity 'Under the Cloak of War' ended on when you'd expect a tropey zombie story to revel in that kind of darkness, and offers instead a perfectly Star Trek message: that even having been touched by darkness, this is a future that represents a possibility that people can grow and become better versions of themselves. So it's interesting then that what 'Shuttle to Kenfori' ends on isn't really M'Benga reconciling with the progress he's made, but the slipping of another member of the Enterprise crew. While all the zombie action on Kenfori has been playing out throughout the episode, back aboard the Enterprise, the bridge crew (among whom all the women have suddenly got their hair tied up, the hilarious reason for why revealing itself in a brief moment where the bridge loses artificial gravity—I guess no one on production wanted to deal with floating hair!) have been playing a bit of a space-submarine game with the Klingon battlecruiser. Not wanting to be seen violating the treaty, and getting into a risky fight that could stop them from rescuing M'Benga and Pike, Una approves a plan to slowly enter Kenfori's orbit, cloaked by an asteroid field, rather than Ortegas' risky, loud move of trying to warp into orbit, beam the away team out at speed (with a bit of help from Scotty, who of course will have history with that kind of risky maneuver!), and warp back out. Things go awry when the D7 notices Enterprise anyway, leading to the crew falling back to Ortegas' original plan… only for Una to realize that Ortegas, who has her own troubled history as a veteran of the Klingon War, purposefully disobeyed orders to force a potential conflict with the Klingons. It's clear that, despite suggestions to the contrary, her traumatic encounter with the Gorn has left Ortegas in a vulnerable state, one that is going to be antagonized by Number One's punishment of her by taking her off the bridge roster for weeks. Not only is it an interesting continuation of Ortegas' arc this season (at last, she has something to do, even if she's just been punished by being given nothing to do!), it's a fascinating parallel with how M'Benga's arc develops this episode. After all, journeys of learning and healing aren't linear paths: there is progress and setbacks, recoveries and slips. But Star Trek is about the potential of allowing people the chance to go on those journeys in the first place, to grow into a place among societies that have managed to do that on interstellar scales. Placing that utopian ideal at the heart of a zombie episode is perfectly Star Trek, and far better than just playing the shambling hits. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Pink Villa
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Who Was Peter-Henry Schroeder? Popular Star Trek: Enterprise Actor Passes Away at 90
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to an individual's death. Peter-Henry Schroeder, known for his diverse career in Hollywood and beyond, died peacefully on June 7 at the Lake City VA Medical Center in Florida. He was 90 years old and passed with his family by his side. Schroeder's acting credits included playing a Klingon Chancellor in Star Trek: Enterprise and a producer in the Oscar-winning film Argo, as per Deadline. He also shared the screen with Meryl Streep and Alan Alda in The Seduction of Joe Tynan in 1979. From Korean War service to Hollywood Born in 1934, Schroeder was drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1953 to 1955 during the Korean War. He was assigned to a unit that worked with the USO, where he first saw Marilyn Monroe perform. After returning from his military duty, Schroeder studied acting with Paula Strasberg. He later became a recording artist with Capitol Records and Ascot. He released two singles, Where's the Girl for Me in 1960 and Memories of Marilyn in 1964, written a decade after he saw Marilyn Monroe in Korea. In Hollywood, Peter-Henry Schroeder formed his own production company called PHS Productions. He created this company to develop his own projects and expand his work behind the camera. He also gave back to the acting community. Schroeder taught as a guest teacher at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and founded the Actor/Artist Group Workshop in 1979. Here's how he stayed passionate until the end In his final days, even while receiving care at the VA Medical Center, Schroeder kept his passion for work alive. 'When are you going to get me out of here, I've got to get back to LA [to work],' he would often ask his family. He stayed dedicated to his craft until the very end, with his last notable role being a producer in Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Peter-Henry Schroeder's legacy will continue with military honors. His family will hold a ceremony at the VA National Cemetery in Los Angeles at a later date. He is survived by his daughter Valerie Lynn Schroeder, his son Peter Henry Schroeder II, daughter-in-law Felicia Cristiani Bass, and his grandsons Peter Henry Schroeder III and Jarrid Michael Schroeder.
Scottish Sun
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Star Trek legend Peter-Henry Schroeder dies at 90 surrounded by family as tributes pour in
LEGEND GONE Star Trek legend Peter-Henry Schroeder dies at 90 surrounded by family as tributes pour in Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) STAR TREK star Peter-Henry Schroeder has died at the age of 90. He was surrounded by his family at the time of his death in Florida on June 7. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 2 Peter-Henry Schroeder has died Credit: IMDB 2 He starred as the Klingon Chancellor Schroeder was best known for his role in Star Trek Enterprise. He had a two-episode arc as the Klingon Chancellor. His cause of death remains unknown. During his illustrious career, Schroeder worked with the likes of Meryl Streep. He starred in the series Big Shamus, Little Shamus in 1979, and B.J. and the Bear in 1981. He played Robert Swanson in the 1985 flick Fire in the Night, and Nick Kristidis in Hotshot in 1986. He appeared as a maitre d' in the hit show Cheers in 1989. In the 1990s, Schroeder starred in the shows Thirtysomething and White Cargo. He's credited for appearances in Three Days of Rain and The Protector, according to his IMDB. His last role came in 2020 when he appeared in the political satire flick Sammy-Gate, directed by Noel Lawrence. The fictitious movie's plot revolves around how Sammy Davis Jr. caused the Watergate scandal. But before becoming a silver screen star, Schroeder served in the US Army during the Korean War. He is a former recording artist and launched his own production company. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun
The Hill
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
‘Star Trek's' George Takei: Trump is the ‘biggest Klingon around'
George Takei is targeting President Trump with the ultimate Trekkie insult, calling the commander in chief the 'biggest Klingon around.' 'Change is constant and change will come,' Takei, a frequent critic of Trump and the Republican Party, said in an interview with USA Today published Tuesday. 'I'm working to make sure that we participate in making it a better, more responsible democracy,' said the 88-year-old 'Star Trek' actor while promoting his new graphic novel 'It Rhymes with Takei.' 'No more Klingons,' the LGBTQ activist said, referring to the science fiction series' villainous humanoids. Takei, who said in 2019 that the U.S. had hit a 'new low' during Trump's first term in office, expressed some optimism about the future. 'The Republicans are starting to fight amongst themselves,' he told the paper. His project with Steven Scott and Justin Eisinger and illustrated by Harmony Becker, details the story of Takei's 'life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything,' according to publisher Penguin Random House.
