Strange New Worlds’ Gets Muppet Fever In Season 4

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has done a lot of odd things in the course of its five-season mission. We’ve had musicals, fantasy episodes, full-on horror adventures, and even a murder mystery is on the horizon. Now, the show is boldly going in another kooky direction: a puppet episode.

Announced today during Trek‘s blockbuster Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Jordan Canning (who directed season 2’s “Charades”, but perhaps more crucially here, also directed seven episodes of the Fraggle Rock revival, Back to the Rock) will direct an episode in the upcoming fourth season of Strange New Worlds that will see the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise turned into puppets. Anson Mount’s Captain Pike beamed into the convention to let fans know… well, kind of:

Nothing else was revealed about the episode, other than the fact Paramount will be working with the fine purveyors of puppet technology at the Jim Henson Creature Shop to bring Pike and the rest of the crew to fabric life for the episode. Strange New Worlds‘ penultimate, fourth season is currently expected to hit Paramount+ sometime next year.

That wasn’t the only Strange New Worlds news out of the convention, however: with the show’s third season currently airing, fans in attendance were treated to an early screening of next week’s episode, “A Space Adventure Hour”. Set to hit Paramount+ next Thursday, July 31, the Jonathan-Frakes-directed episode—which sees security chief La’an test out an early prototype holodeck system with a program that, in true Trek style, starts getting dangerous—will also stream for free between July 31 and August 6 on Pluto TV, Paramount+ (as well as its channels available through Amazon, Apple, and Roku), and the Paramount+ YouTube channel.

Stay tuned to io9 for more Trek news right out of Hall H at SDCC 2025!

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.