Star Trek’s Renaissance During Stranger Things’ 9-Year Run

From Star Trek: Discovery to the most recent season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, nearly all of Star Trek’s modern renaissance happened during Stranger Things. Created by the Duffer Brothers, Netflix’s biggest original series premiered on July 15, 2016, and Stranger Things’ highly anticipated series finale will drop on December 31, 2025.

When Stranger Things premiered 9 years ago, no one could have known the 1980s-themed horror series would become a global sensation, and Stranger Things‘ young cast, including Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Sadie Sink, would be cemented as major stars. Stranger Things’ 5 seasons will ultimately deliver 38 episodes, many of which are feature-length.

Meanwhile, Star Trek was at the beginning stages of its comeback in 2016, when then-showrunner and series creator Bryan Fuller was plotting Star Trek: Discovery as an anthology series. When it premiered on the former CBS All-Access streaming service, Star Trek: Discovery was retooled from Fuller’s original plan, but it was a success that spawned a new age for Star Trek on television.

Star Trek on Paramount+ will continue after Stranger Things’ series finale, with two seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy still to come. Here’s how much Star Trek content Paramount+ produced during Stranger Things’ 9-year run.

Star Trek’s Modern Renaissance Happened During Stranger Things

Star Trek: Discovery‘s success not only propped up CBS All-Access before it rebranded as Paramount+, but Disco was the flagship for a new era that led to four more Star Trek TV series and a made-for-streaming Star Trek movie during Stranger Things‘ 9 years on Netflix. Here’s how much Star Trek content Paramount+ produced:

Between September 2017, when Star Trek: Discovery premiered, and September 2025, when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 ended, Paramount+ delivered 125 hour-long live-action episodes. 90 half-hour animated episodes, 10 Short Treks consisting of 5-10 minute episodes, one 90-minute streaming movie, and 9 episodes of the YouTube Shorts Star Trek: Scouts.

While longtime Star Trek fans lament that it isn’t enough content and miss when Star Trek seasons consisted of 22-26 episodes, Star Trek on Paramount+’s output dwarfs Stranger Things‘ 38 episodes. Star Trek also endured the same 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that mired production of Stranger Things season 5.

In 2023 and 2024, Star Trek on Paramount+ canceled Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks, leading up to the studio’s purchase by Skydance Media in August 2025. Prior to that, Star Trek: Picard ended after 3 seasons in 2023.

Paramount+ canceled Star Trek: Prodigy in 2023, but Netflix saved the beloved animated series after a vocal fan campaign. However, Netflix did not order Star Trek: Prodigy season 3. Still, a new Star Trek series joined Stranger Things on Netflix in the United States for 2 years before Prodigy’s license ends on January 1, 2026, one day after Stranger Things’ series finale.

Why Stranger Things Doesn’t Mention Star Trek

Set between 1983 and 1987, Stranger Things is steeped in the pop culture of the Me Decade. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Max (Sadie Sink) are hardcore fans of Ghostbusters, Dungeons & Dragons, Mad Max, and other franchises.

However, Star Trek and Star Wars, the two biggest sci-fi franchises, are not mentioned by name in Stranger Things. This seems odd, but the reason is simply copyright issues between Star Trek‘s owners, Paramount, and Star Wars‘ owners, Disney. Instead, Star Trek and Star Wars are spiritual influences on Stranger Things and its creators, Matt and Ross Duffer.

Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1-3 were co-productions that streamed internationally on Netflix. In addition, classic Star Trek series are available on Netflix internationally. Star Trek was also streaming on Netflix in the US before Paramount+ became the exclusive home of Star Trek.

Star Trek also owes a debt to Netflix; when series like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise streamed on Netflix in the United States in the years before there was no new Star Trek TV content.

Netflix brought Star Trek to new audiences who discovered that DS9 is still relevant today, and that Enterprise is a better show than its reputation in the early 2000s suggested.

Star Trek and Stranger Things share a bond, even if Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the Starship Enterprise aren’t directly referenced in Hawkins, Indiana.

Between Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, 115 episodes of Star Trek were produced on Paramount+ throughout Stranger Things’ 9-year run on Netflix, with more still to come.

Release Date

May 5, 2022

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman