A new, live-action Star Trek series is in the works, this time from Justin Simien, the writer-director of Dear White People and The Haunted Mansion, and Star Trek: Lower Decks voice actress Tawny Newsome. She portrays one of the lead characters, Ensign Beckett Mariner, and also played her in live action for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

The announcement was made during the Star Trek Universe panel in Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The new series will be an action comedy that centres on Federation outsiders who are working on a gleaming resort planet. Not only that, but their day-to-day lives are being broadcast to the entire quadrant. Sources say the show may have workplace comedy tones of The Office and Parks and Recreation.

Justin Simien has history with the franchise, having previously stated that The Next Generation was a key influence on his writing for Dear White People. Newsome, meanwhile, became a writer on the upcoming Starfleet Academy series and impressed Alex Kurtzman to such an extent that he referred to her as a “stone cold assassin of a writer”. The writing pair convinced Kurtzman to develop the series for Paramount+, which they will also produce.

The show, if it receives a series order, would join a line-up of live-action and animated series that includes Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and the upcoming, aforementioned Starfleet Academy.