What To Know
- Holly Hunter expresses pride in her dual role as Captain and Chancellor Nahla Ake in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Despite Paramount+ canceling the show after Season 2 wrapped, Hunter is grateful for the positive critical and fan response, and she appreciates the passionate campaign to revive the series.
- Hunter teases Season 2 and remains open to reprising her role if given the opportunity.
Holly Hunter saw a welcome opportunity when Star Trek: Starfleet Academy came her way. The Oscar-winning actress, whose career stretches from Broadcast News and The Piano to Saving Grace and Pixar’s The Incredibles films, gravitated toward the scale of the franchise, the unknowns of science fiction, and the chance to inhabit the half-Lanthanite Nahla Ake, a leader who operates as both the captain of the USS Athena and the chancellor of Starfleet Academy.
The series now occupies an unusual space within the Star Trek universe. Season 2 has wrapped production, but Paramount+ canceled the show, prompting an all-too-typical passionate Star Trek fan campaign to revive it. The 68-year-old Hunter remains deeply proud of the work, enthusiastic about the cast and appreciative of both the critical response and the audience reaction.
In this conversation, she reflects on stepping into Star Trek, balancing Nahla’s opposing instincts, the ambitious scope of the series and joining the long line of actors who have played Star Trek captains.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
What intrigues you about the character of Nahla Ake?
Holly Hunter: The fact that it was like an offer for two roles. One is chancellor and one is captain, and they really required two oppositional forces in me. The role of captain requires certainty and the ability to make snap decisions and do it with the appropriate confidence and reliability. Then the idea of chancellor is really the opposite. The chancellor is an opportunity for lightness of touch. Given the 422 years that Nahla Ake has been alive, that also could be utilized in being chancellor, because it demands humor and a treading lightly.
How satisfied were you with Season 1?
Tremendously. It was a huge undertaking to establish so many different characters and to actually establish the school itself. Because the school was in the spaceship, and the spaceship was giant enough to accommodate both being in space and docking in San Francisco, and having it be a school no matter where we were. That was an amazing concept.
Was there something in particular that made you wish to take on this role?
I think the life of an actor is like the roulette wheel or the lottery. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So there is a certain landscape of being an actor that accommodates a lot of unknown. When I got this offer, it was surprising, but I wasn’t shocked. I love the whole idea of the unknown about the job, with it being science fiction, with it taking place in outer space, with there being this 60-year legacy that had already been thrown down before me. That was very compelling.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
You’d starred in a series before, specifically Saving Grace from 2007 to 2010. But how different an experience has Starfleet Academy been with the complicated sci-fi stories, the massive sets, makeup-heavy characters and tons of special effects?
I’ve never worked with this many cranes! It would be like a field of cranes on the set. I loved all of it, and I loved the bridge. It was such a creative space to be on the bridge.
Give us a taste of what’s to come in Season 2.
Season 2 asks large questions, which I think Star Trek is particularly good at. Trek is always seeking solutions of peace and solutions of fairness, and I think Season 2 really does that incredibly well and deals with the complexity of that. It’s also tremendously fun because we get to do a lot of things that you can only do in science fiction. It’s like, “What if….” It happens in the second season a lot, particularly for me.
Star Trek in general, and Starfleet Academy in particular, has an incredibly loyal and vocal fan base and they continue fighting to keep the show on the air. What does that mean to you personally, and how hopeful are you that they can succeed?
It’s meant a tremendous amount to me that people have been so vocal with loving the show, and I also think the critics were vocal in loving the show. The reception from so many was really positive. I think there was a tremendous amount of negativity regarding the show being too “woke” for the taste of so many people, and William Shatner addressed that with such grace and articulateness when he did an interview and said, “Hey, the definition of Star Trek is woke.” He talked about Southern states banning the Original Series when [it] had a Black woman and a white man kissing, and then the first season [of our series] got canceled. He said, “Have we traveled no distance in our 60 years?” He expressed real sadness and distress at the cancellation, and I loved that because he’s the man. He’s the maestro.
Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
How open are you to playing Nahla Ake again in the future if the opportunity presents itself?
I had nothing but a blast playing Nahla, nothing but a blast with that amazing cast. I love those actors.
How proud are you to now be part of the family of actors who’ve played a Star Trek captain?
It’s a privilege to be part of the legacy, and I feel tremendous pride. It really is a legacy for American entertainment. Sixty years is unbelievable continuity. So, I’m thrilled. I hope I won’t be the last one.
TV Guide Magazine’s Star Trek: The Captains Special Issue is available for order online now at StarTrek.TVGM2026.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.