Star Trek EPs Admit A Strange New Worlds Character’s Future Was “Undecided” In Possible Series Finale

Published Oct 1, 2026, 8:22 PM EDT

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4's Finale - "Tomorrow's Enterprise"If Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended with season 4's finale, the executive producers admit that one character's fate could have been left undecided.

"Tomorrow's Enterprise," Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, was written as the possible end of the series. At the time, cancellation loomed until negotiations began, with Paramount+ offering a two-hour movie to wrap up Strange New Worlds. Executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldman then parleyed for a six-episode fifth and final season that wrapped filming in December 2025.

• 

• 

• 

• Image credit: Paramount+

• 

• Image credit: Paramount+

Speaking to TV Line about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, Akiva Goldsman and executive producer and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers said that the fate of Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) may have been left unresolved. However, Strange New Worlds' final season will answer the question of what happens to La'an. Read Akiva and Henry's quotes below:

Henry Alonso Myers: “I will say straight up that at the time we wrote that, we weren't certain of what it would be. But I will say that the future, which was undecided, is something that we've eventually come to.”

Akiva Goldsman: “Yeah, we will locate everybody, both canon and non-canon characters. You won't have to wonder.”

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Tomorrow's Enterprise," Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) switched places with herself from one year in the future. When Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) asked the younger Uhura about her time travel, she asked where La'an is . . . which elicited an alarmed reaction and a non-answer from Kirk.

According to Myers, he and Goldsman hadn't worked out what happens to La'an when they wrote "Tomorrow's Enterprise." However, it might not have stayed that way. Had Strange New Worlds season 4's finale also been the series finale, it's possible that the showrunners could have decided La'an's fate and added it in post-production.

Thankfully, Strange New Worlds was greenlit for six more episodes to properly dramatize La'an's destiny.

Still, La'an's future would have been a throwaway answer, at best, if Strange New Worlds ended with season 4. Thankfully, Strange New Worlds was greenlit for six more episodes to properly dramatize La'an's destiny, which will play out in the fifth and final season.

Many Star Trek fans expect La'an to die by the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. La'an is an original character created for the prequel, but because she's a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) who is never mentioned in Star Trek: The Original Series (given that she was created 50+ years later), the Sword of Damocles always hung over La'an's head.

However, there are other, more creative options to resolve La'an's story instead of doing the expected thing and killing her off, including the easy solution of Lt. Noonien-Singh leaving the USS Enterprise when Captain Kirk takes command and transferring to another starship.

Christina Chong is expected to appear in all six episodes of Strange New Worlds season 5, so La'an Noonien-Singh's ultimate destiny may not be revealed until the series finale. Until then, La'an's just-started romantic relationship with the future Captain Kirk will play out in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fifth and final season, but that is also destined to end.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+

• 

  Captain Christopher Pike

• 

  Spock