Starfleet Academy Actor Unveils Marvel-Style Secrecy Behind New Star Trek Series

I always find it amusing how tight-lipped studios get when they don’t want spoilers leaking—like, Mission Impossible-level secret ops, except it’s about space cadets and not world-ending bombs. Case in point: Gina Yashere had no clue she was joining the Star Trek universe when she landed her gig as drill sergeant Lura Thok on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. If you think you’d get some kind of hint because the script would say 'Klingon' six times, nope. Not on Kurtzman’s watch.

War School… But Which War? (No Clue, Thanks to the Codenames)

Here’s how secretive things got—Yashere’s first audition script didn’t mention 'Star Trek'. Didn’t mention phasers, starships, or basically anything that would make you go, 'Oh! Federation.' They swapped out all the references and slapped a random production codename on the whole thing. So Gina just saw a grumpy sergeant barking at kids and just… went for it.

'The first audition that I did for the show, I didn’t even know it was Star Trek because they took out every reference in the script, and it had a codename.'

Apparently, this level of off-the-grid secrecy isn’t even unusual anymore. Marvel has turned it into an art form, and frankly, Star Trek’s been at this game since the eighties.

Star Trek: Destroy All Leaks—A (Weirdly) Proud Tradition

If you think this is just new-era paranoia, nope. Back in 1984, the script for The Search for Spock had invisible chemical tracers, like studio execs were trying to catch actual spies, not Trekkies giggling on Usenet. By 1991, The Undiscovered Country scripts came printed with stern messages about code numbers, and how they could trace any leak straight back to whoever took it home to show off at their bridge club.

It’s all the same idea: mask as much as possible, keep the leaks at bay, and make everyone sign enough NDAs to wallpaper your office.

What Starfleet Academy Is All About

• Title: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
• Showrunners: Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau
• Streaming: Paramount+ (U.S.)
• Genre: Sci-fi drama; think coming-of-age, just with warp drive
• Premiere: January 15, 2026 (so, pretty fresh)
• Episodes: 10 in Season 1 (new installment each week until March 12)
• Timeline: Set in the 32nd century—way past Kirk, Spock, or Picard
• Status: Season 2 already in production

Yashere: No Trek Knowledge, No Problem

Here’s the fun part—turns out Gina Yashere knew literally nothing about Klingons or Jem'Hadar when she tried out for the role. She confessed it was all just about the vibe of a no-nonsense drill sergeant trying to whip a bunch of future space pilots into shape. Once the cat was out of the bag ('Surprise, you’re in Star Trek!'), she called her brother—a massive Trek nerd—for a crash course on warrior cultures and angry forehead aliens. Very on-brand for this franchise that she had to do her own 'Federation 101' after getting the job.

Once she realized her character's background, Yashere said she softened Sergeant Thok anyway, since, you know, you're not actually allowed to vaporize freshmen for missing pushups.

Will All That Secrecy Pay Off?

Starfleet Academy isn’t the first show to squeeze new recruits into the sprawling Star Trek universe, though it's definitely aiming for the YA crowd (raise your hand if you predict a lot of 'space homework' montages). Yashere seems genuinely hyped for her role, even as fans have already started the inevitable pre-release grumbling. Time will tell if the ultra-coded script lockdown and all that secrecy somehow translate to magic onscreen.

So what’s your take—are these studio anti-leak tactics just sensible, or a sign the industry’s gone full tinfoil hat? Starfleet Academy is up right now on Paramount+, so let the speculation (and nitpicking) begin.