Paul Giamatti to play the villain in ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’

Paul Giamatti is boldly going where no one from “Billions” has gone before: the “Star Trek” franchise. 

The Oscar-nominated star of “The Holdovers” has boarded Paramount+’s upcoming series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” in a major recurring role, Variety reports. 

Per the trade, Giamatti will play the first season’s main villain, who has a “sinister connection” to one of Starfleet Academy’s cadets. 

“Sometimes you’re lucky enough to discover that one of the greatest actors alive is also a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan, and meeting Paul was one of those miraculous moments for us,” co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau said in a statement. “The sheer delight with which he dove in on ‘Starfleet Academy’ is only surpassed by the gratitude we feel about him joining our incredible cast.”

Giamatti joins Oscar winner Holly Hunter in the cast. Hunter will be playing the captain and chancellor of Starfleet Academy, where the next generation of space force officers are trained. The search is on for young actors to join the series as Starfleet cadets. The series sounds like “Star Trek’s” version of “Harry Potter,” following the cadets through their academic and romantic lives and as they battle intergalactic threats. It will start production in Toronto later this summer. 

Giamatti is a two-time Academy Award nominee and the winner of an Emmy (for “John Adams”) and a Golden Globe (for “The Holdovers”). He is known for his performances in the films “Private Parts,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “American Splendor,” and “Sideways,” and on the long-running drama series “Billions,” which ended last year. He was also recently cast in a TV series version of the horror movie franchise “Hostel,” and is set to reprise his role as Harold Levinson in the third “Downton Abbey” film.

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