‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Paul Wesley & Ethan Peck on Season 2 and ‘TOS’ Homages (2024)

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2

If you loved seeing that “alternate version” of Captain James Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, you're going to be just as excited as Paul Wesley was to return to the set, but this time in an all-new way for Season 2. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub ahead of the season premiere, we spoke with Wesley and Ethan Peck, who plays a younger Spock on Captain Christopher Pike’s (Anson Mount) USS Enterprise, about what they’re most looking forward to fans seeing and all the cool stuff they got to do.

Strange New Worlds takes Trek fans back nearly a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series, in episodic adventures that are a callback to what fans first fell in love with. Taking place in the not-so-distant past, the series still allows for many familiar faces, including Peck’s Spock, who’s attempting to navigate the line between his half-Vulcan logistics and half-human emotions, and even Captain Kirk. The series, which will explore even more new worlds, aliens, and some crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks this season, also stars Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, and Babs Olusanmokun.

While talking with Collider, Wesley teases that in Season 2, he was able to “bring out some of the Kirk qualities that we all know,” and that he’ll get to pay homage to his favorite episode from the original series. Peck shares what aspect of his character was “incredibly challenging” for him this season, and how even after that tricky episode, “Spock Amok” in Season 1, the writers still managed to throw him “a lot of screwballs.” For their favorite episodes and more, check out the full interview in the video or transcript below.

This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

COLLIDER: So I've seen the first six episodes of Season 2, and my big complaint is I have not seen seven through 10, so I need you guys to work on that. You both get to do cool stuff this season, what are you allowed to say?

ETHAN PECK: Oh, I guess not much, but since you've seen episodes one through six, I mean, playing Spock as a full human was really a blast and incredibly challenging, and that was a really great moment for me.

PAUL WESLEY: And I'll say that, you know, I'm just glad we got to see Kirk sort of in the timeline that we all know as canon. We sort of met him in this alternate version in Season 1, and I felt that in Season 2 I was able to sort of bring out some of the Kirk qualities that we all know.

Paul, I know that you guys are always trapped on set, and you can't wear costumes when you leave, so what was it like being in downtown Toronto, being able to fully walk around in costume, and you could walk into Starbucks and you can't get in any trouble?

WESLEY: I loved it, and it was a real homage to “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which is my favorite Trek episode. Although, if I recall, they did change clothes fairly quickly, but then again, so did Kirk… Kirk changed fairly quickly as well. I loved it. I love those kind of isolated, one-location-type episodes where we're on Earth, and it was our playground. I loved it and it was sort of a singular episode, and it was so much fun. I had such a good time filming it.

I've been to Toronto many times, I would have loved to have seen you guys filming. I knew exactly where you were, and for people that are fans, they must have been like, “Wow!” Because it's right there.

WESLEY: Yeah, absolutely.

Ethan, I definitely want to talk about you playing Spock as human because on the weekends obviously you're getting ready for the following week, and you have Spock down, but now all of a sudden they're throwing on, “Okay, Spock as a full human.” So, what was it like for you prepping for those scenes because it definitely is more rehearsal, more, “How am I gonna do this?”

PECK: Yeah, the writers definitely throw me a lot of screwballs, which is really fun. You know, what comes to mind for me in Season 1 is “Spock Amok” when I have to play Spock playing T’Pring playing Spock. In this season, yeah, he wakes up all screwed up, human only, but with the life experience and an inner world of Spock. And I imagined that it was sort of like being on some sort of drug trip, right? He's, like, in an altered state of mind and just trying to adapt to his new ability to perceive, his new sensory perception, right? Because suddenly you don't have that hyper-logical half of you sort of clamping down on your emotions, and I saw it as a great opportunity to be sort of childlike, like Spock as a human child, kind of discovering what it is like to be human fully.

For both of you, the season is obviously 10 episodes, do you have a favorite of the 10 episodes?

WESLEY: I mean, I'm biased; the ones I was in. [To Peck] You're in all of them [laughs]. No, all jokes aside, I did truly love working– Look, I love moments from all the episodes that I've done, but if I had to pick one I did really love Episode 3. Just driving fast cars and sort of giving Kirk this sort of, you know… he was like a kid in a candy store just running around Earth figuring it out for the first time. Again, this is an alternate timeline, so it was just a blast.

PECK: Yeah, for me, Episode 5 was just truly a joy to experience as an actor.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+. Check out Collider's interview with Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn below.