No series in the franchise is as easy to justify for a remake as Star Trek: Enterprise. The 2001-2005 Star Trek show is easily the most divisive Trek series. While it has come to be appreciated in retrospect by many fans, many more felt it squandered its potential as a Star Trek: The Original Series prequel. If any Star Trek TV show feels worth reinventing in 2026, it’s Enterprise.
While the original performers weren’t the source of any of the issues, remaking Star Trek: Enterprise would require an entirely new roster of names and faces. Fortunately, there are plenty of actors out there who could step into the shoes of Scott Bakula’s Captain Archer, Jolene Blalock’s Science Officer T’Pol, and even Connor Trinneer’s Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker for a Star Trek: Enterprise 2026 recast.
Jon Hamm As Captain Archer
Scott Bakula had a hard task playing Jonathan Archer, as he needed to portray a man who’d become the face of a new era for humanity. As captain of the first Warp 5 starship, Archer was not simply another Star Trek captain. He was operating without the institutional confidence and experience enjoyed by James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), and their successors.
A 2026 Star Trek: Enterprise remake would need an actor who can sell both Archer’s authority and his carefully concealed uncertainty, and Jon Hamm would be an excellent fit. Best known for playing the legendary Don Draper in Mad Men, Jon Hamm has spent much of his career showing he can project leadership that seems effortless, but also masks deeply held doubt.
He has the maturity and charisma necessary for a Starfleet captain, but could also make Archer feel fallible and vulnerable. That combination is essential. A 2026 remake of Star Trek: Enterprise should emphasize that Archer has the weight of Starfleet and humanity’s future on his shoulders, and Jon Hamm could make that responsibility feel enormous.
Naomi Scott As T’Pol
Thanks to appearing in the 2017 Power Rangers movie, the live-action Aladdin remake, and the 2019 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, Naomi Scott has already proven she can thrive in large-scale franchises. This is going to be essential for playing T’Pol in 2026, arguably the most difficult role to recast thanks to Jolene Blalock’s incredible performance in the original run of Star Trek: Enterprise.
As the Enterprise NX-01’s Vulcan science officer and representative of the Vulcan High Command, T’Pol spent much of Star Trek: Enterprise caught between two worlds. Her gradual relationship with humanity became one of the show’s best character arcs, and Blalock was essential to it having so much impact. Thankfully, Naomi Scott’s performances in movies like Smile 2 and TV shows like Terra Nova prove she can deliver the same mix of emotional intensity and restraint.
T’Pol requires an actor who can communicate a great deal without conventional displays of emotion, but the character also needs enough warmth beneath that control to make her evolution believable. Naomi Scott could bring a nuanced emotional depth to the role that didn’t abandon T’Pol’s essential Vulcan qualities. She also has considerable experience with science fiction and fantasy productions, making her well-equipped for the demands of a major Star Trek series. A 2026 Star Trek: Enterprise remake could maybe build even more around T’Pol’s divided loyalties too, and Scott has the range to carry that story.
Jim Rash As Phlox
Another incredibly difficult Star Trek: Enterprise role to recast in 2026 is Phlox, who was played to perfection by John Billingsley in the 2001-2005 run. The casting of Phlox would require someone with impeccable comic timing, but the role is also much, much deeper than mere comic relief. The Denobulan Starfleet medical officer was one of Enterprise’s most consistently entertaining characters because his eccentricity was balanced by genuine intelligence and compassion.
Of all the possible actors who could play the character in a 2026 Star Trek: Enterprise remake, Jim Rash could capture that unusual combination remarkably well while giving a new version of Phlox his own identity. Rash is best known to many viewers as Dean Craig Pelton in Community, where he demonstrated an extraordinary ability to make a seemingly one-note comic relief character have a surprising level of depth. What’s more, his career extends well beyond Greendale Community College.
Jim Rash’s work as a writer and actor has repeatedly demonstrated a sharp understanding of tone, and he can move between absurdity and sincerity with ease. Those qualities would be perfect for Phlox, whose alien perspective often allowed Enterprise to explore humanity from an unexpected angle. Rash could embrace the character’s eccentric habits and cheerful demeanor that John Billingsley helped define while ensuring that Phlox remained a credible physician and one of the Star Trek: Enterprise‘s wisest officers.
Dan Stevens As Malcolm Reed
When played by Dominic Keating in the original Star Trek: Enterprise cast, Malcolm Reed was the most aloof character, but his quietness concealed one of the show’s most fascinating personalities. As the Enterprise NX-01’s armory officer, Reed was intensely professional and deeply committed to his duties. Yet Enterprise gradually revealed his complicated family history, social awkwardness, and connections to Britain’s intelligence community.
For a Star Trek: Enterprise 2026 recast, Downton Abbey and Legion star Dan Stevens stands out as a perfect fit. Stevens can be charming and approachable, as demonstrated by Downton Abbey, but Legion and other projects showcase his talent for playing stranger and more psychologically complex characters too.
The 2014 movie The Guest and the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake further demonstrate that Dan Stevens could make Reed immediately convincing as a disciplined military officer while suggesting that there is far more happening beneath the surface. That would be especially valuable in a Star Trek: Enterprise remake in 2026, as it would ensure the complexity and nuance established by Dominic Keating wasn’t lost.
John Boyega As Travis Mayweather
A 2026 remake of Star Trek: Enterprise should give Travis Mayweather substantially more to do, and Star Wars alum John Boyega would be an ideal actor to lead that reinvention. Originally played by Anthony Montgomery, Mayweather had one of the most intriguing backgrounds of any character in the Enterprise NX-01 crew: he was a “boomer” who had grown up on human cargo vessels before joining Starfleet.
That meant he possessed practical experience of space travel that even Archer and the rest of the Enterprise characters lacked. Unfortunately, the show rarely developed that premise as fully as it deserved. John Boyega could help change that. His performance as Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy perfectly demonstrates why. Like Mayweather, Finn was also surrounded by characters who seemed more experienced at first, but soon come to learn he has knowledge and insight none of them can match.
John Boyega’s sci-fi experience stretches beyond Star Wars too, with 2023’s They Cloned Tyrone and 2018’s Pacific Rim Uprising further cementing his genre credentials. He could make Mayweather feel like a genuinely essential member of the crew rather than its most underused. A Star Trek: Enterprise 2026 reboot could explore the contrast between Mayweather’s civilian upbringing and Starfleet culture, giving Boyega a character arc with considerable dramatic potential.
Stephanie Hsu As Hoshi Sato
Alongside Mayweather, Linda Park’s Hoshi Sato was another Star Trek: Enterprise character who deserved more attention. A gifted linguist recruited for humanity’s first deep-space mission, Hoshi represented one of the most important aspects of early exploration: the ability to communicate with the myriad non-human species populating the universe. The Enterprise NX-01 crew could not simply rely on the Federation’s established infrastructure or universal translators working perfectly.
Hoshi’s extraordinary linguistic abilities were often fundamental to the ship’s survival. However, she wasn’t a Spock-like presence driven by logic. She was deeply emotionally complex, especially when it came to her anxiety about being in deep space. For this reason, no choice feels more perfect than Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy star Stephanie Hsu.
Stephanie Hsu’s Oscar-nominated performance in multiverse dramedy Everything Everywhere All at Once demonstrated her ability to move between radically different emotions, while The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy showcased how comfortable she is with dialogue heavy with sci-fi jargon. Both also proved she can make highly intelligent characters feel human and vulnerable, which is crucial for Hoshi. Hsu would have the range to portray both sides of Star Trek: Enterprise’s comms officer: the uncertain explorer and the brilliant specialist capable of solving problems nobody else can.
Boyd Holbrook As Trip
Connor Trinneer’s Charles “Trip” Tucker was the emotional heart of much of Star Trek: Enterprise. The chief engineer was technically gifted, fiercely loyal, and considerably more openly expressive than many of his fellow officers. His friendship with Archer was one of the show’s defining relationships, while his evolving romance with T’Pol gave Enterprise one of its most significant character arcs. Connor Trinneer was perfect fit during the original run of Enterprise, and he’d be one of the most difficult cast members to replace.
Fortunately, Boyd Holbrook feels tailor-made to play Trip in a 2026 version of Star Trek: Enterprise. He has extensive experience in sci-fi movies and TV shows, including Logan, The Predator, and The Sandman. What’s more, he’s not confined to straightforward action roles. His performances in Narcos and Justified: City Primeval show his ability to play charismatic, complicated characters whose confidence can conceal deeper vulnerabilities. Those qualities fit Trip incredibly well.
A 2026 Star Trek: Enterprise cast would still need Trip’s humor and warmth, but Boyd Holbrook could also emphasize the pressure placed on the engineer responsible for keeping humanity’s most important starship functioning. He also has the chemistry and screen presence to make Trip feel like Archer’s closest confidant and T’Pol’s eventual love interest without merely copying Trinneer’s performance.
- Release Date
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2001 – 2005-00-00
- Network
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UPN
- Showrunner
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Brannon Braga
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Scott Bakula
Jonathan Archer
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
