The series will be a direct prequel to the original series with Captain Kirk.

If you were watching the much-improved but still so-so second season of 'Star Trek: Discovery', no doubt you clocked that the final episode basically had this lined up and ready to go.

It was announced yesterday that a new 'Star Trek' spinoff series is in the works that follows the USS Enterprise directly before it was captained by James Kirk. 'Strange New Worlds' sees 'Discovery' Season 2 guest stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn return in their roles as Captain Pike, Mr. Spock and Number One respectively.

The series appears to be a throwback-style show, meaning that it could very well be episodic like the original series and 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', not to mention jettisoning all the time-travel / parallel universe stuff in 'Star Trek: Discovery' too. Paramount and CBS All Access have locked in a release date for 'Strange New Worlds', but it's one of several spin-offs in the works at the minute.

'Picard' is the most recent series, with a second season in production before it was delayed. There's 'Lower Decks', an animated comedy series, 'Section 31' with Michelle Yeoh's character from the first and second season of 'Discovery', not to mention the third season that's on the way for 'Discovery' too. 'Strange New Worlds', however, is a much different beast.

Basically, the audience reaction to Captain Pike and the setup in the final episode that pointed towards a potential spinoff was essentially what drove the series into reality. Audiences are, given everything that's going on at the minute, hungry for an optimistic, compassionate sci-fi series that's more in common with the original series and 'The Next Generation'.

Here's the announcement video. As of now, there's no word on where this show will land on this side of the Atlantic, as 'Picard' ended up on Amazon Prime while 'Discovery' was on Netflix.