‘The Wrath of Khan’ is getting an official Star Trek podcast prequel

Paramount has announced a new scripted Star Trek podcast detailing the exploits of arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh. Star Trek: Khan - Ceti Alpha V will cover the period of time after Khan and his cohort of genetically-engineered villains were exiled during the classic episode Space Seed and before Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. More importantly, the long-mooted miniseries will be written and directed by Trek auteur Nicholas Meyer.

To Trek fans, there are few creative figures who deserve more swooning adoration than Meyer. The writer-director made The Wrath of Khan, the movie that ostensibly saved the series from obscurity. He would go on to co-write The Voyage Home and helm The Undiscovered Country — three of the best Star Trek movies ever made. In fact, one esteemed Trek scholar even said that to make great Star Trek you need to do two things: Hire Nicholas Meyer, then cut his budget in half.

Alex Kurtzman gave praise to Meyer, saying that “Nick made the definitive Trek movie when he made Wrath, and we’ve all been standing in its shadow since.” He added that Meyer has “come up with something as surprising, gripping and emotional as the original, and it’s a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to.”

When Star Trek’s revival began, Discovery’s original creator Bryan Fuller recruited Meyer as a producer. Back in 2017, Meyer added that discussions had taken place for him to write a Khan mid-quel series covering his exile and bridging the gap between the classic series and the film. The series may or may not have been put on ice as a consequence of Paramount and CBS’ complex re-merger, and the fact it was only three episodes long. On stage, Meyer said that he was working on revising his drafts, and presumably making sure they're better-suited to the format.

Unfortunately there’s no solid details on who will star in the series (Ricardo Montalban passed away in 2009), and no word on a release date or runtime. But given that Paramount has a) Hired Nicholas Meyer and b) cut his budget by more than half, we should expect this podcast to be the greatest piece of Trek ever committed to audio.