Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is set to take the franchise beyond the final stages of Discovery's main story, but the iconic space opera has already done this twice before. Set in Star Trek's 32nd century, Discovery's final three seasons unfolded at the latest point in the saga's timeline to that point.
However, Starfleet Academy is gearing up to take the baton and run with it as it prepares to continue where Discovery's final season left off. Although it's only a soft sequel to Discovery, Starfleet Academy will be unavoidably influenced and impacted by Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew's adventures. Either way, the idea of continuing Discovery in general isn't all that original.
The Discovery series finale's flash-forward is set after Starfleet Academy
Although Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is technically a Discovery sequel, not all of the latter is set before the former. Discovery's final episode, which aired in 2024, featured a heartwarming glimpse into Burnham's future. The sequence reveals the family life that Martin-Green's character has built for herself, as well as showing her bidding the USS Discovery an emotional farewell decades later.
So, while everything in Discovery before this flash-forward is set before Starfleet Academy, the upcoming show is not the project that currently holds the title for taking place the furthest into the future. In other words, if you were going to watch the two shows in chronological order, the most logical way to do so would be to watch all of Star Trek: Discovery, pause before the finale's flash-forward, watch Starfleet Academy, then return to Discovery to see how Michael's life turned out.
Of course, I'm not condoning this viewing tactic. It's messy and unnecessary, even if it is technically correct. All I'm doing is highlighting Star Trek's willingness to jump around the timeline, while also uncovering signs that prove Starfleet Academy and Discovery don't both need to be watched for either show to fully make sense.
Star Trek: Discovery also kind of has another sequel
2025's Star Trek: Section 31 was a major failure for the franchise, so it's generally easier not to talk about it. That said, it's relevant to the point I'm making here, so I'll need to revisit the direct-to-streaming movie. Michelle Yeoh led the cast as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who hadn't been seen since near the end of Discovery season 3 in 2020. It took some time for Star Trek to pay off her exit as the spinoff it was clearly setting up, but it got there in the end.
Georgiou's final Discovery appearance sent her from the 32nd century all the way back to the 24th. So, if you wanted to see what lies beyond her Discovery storyline, Section 31 became the movie where that was possible. The difference between Section 31 and Starfleet Academy is that the former is only a follow-up to a single Discovery character, whereas Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is continuing to build on an entire era that Discovery introduced.