Star Trek Fans Vote Overwhelmingly To Batgirl Starfleet Academy

By Joshua Tyler
| Published 32 seconds ago

Paramount has announced that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be cancelled after airing its second season sometime next year. That’s welcome news, but for most Trekkies, it doesn’t go far enough.

The problem with this announcement is that Paramount still plans to air the show’s second season. They completed filming it several months ago, and since they’ve already got the footage, you can see why they might think it makes sense to dump whatever they’ve got online, as long as they’ve got it.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. There is another path. Paramount could Batgirl Starfleet Academy.

Batgirling – The act of a studio permanently shelving a completed or near-completed film or series because it is deemed unreleasable, choosing instead to claim a financial loss through a tax write-off rather than risk public exposure or reputational damage.

The Batgirl Precedent

In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery made an unusual decision: it canceled an upcoming Batgirl movie after filming had already wrapped and the film had entered post-production. The superhero outing, starring Leslie Grace and featuring Michael Keaton’s return as Batman, had a reported budget of around $90 million and was originally planned for release on HBO Max.

Instead of finishing and releasing the movie, the studio chose to shelve it and treat the production cost as a financial loss. This allowed Warner Bros. Discovery to reduce its taxable income through a write-down, a legal accounting strategy tied to its post-merger restructuring. Batgirl has never been released and never will be.

Why Batgirling Starfleet Academy Makes Sense

Starfleet Academy has the lowest viewer rating of almost anything on television. According to some reports, the show performed 20% worse than even Paramount’s most pessimistic projections predicted. It didn’t just fail; it tainted the brand in a way Star Trek may not recover from.

In that context, why would any for-profit company want to release more of it? There’s basically no value in releasing it, because no one will watch it. Meanwhile, there’s huge potential value in not releasing it, because doing so protects your brand from further reputational harm.

Most importantly, fans don’t want it. We asked Trekkies on X if they’d like to see Starfleet Academy’s second season released. Nearly 85% of respondents voted for Batgirling it.

There’s currently a petition running on Change.org asking Paramount to Batgirl Starfleet Academy season 2. If you’re part of that 85%, consider signing it to send Paramount a message. Maybe it’s time Star Trek fans were heard.