William Shatner has been a television icon in the sci-fi sphere for more than half a decade thanks to his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise. He has even left the planet in real life with a space flight back in 2021, but now he’s set to go out of this world with a new show on Fox. A new unscripted competition series called Stars on Mars is on the way this summer, with William Shatner as Mission Control.
Stars on Mars recruits celebrities to give up their glamorous lifestyles on Earth for some new challenges, although this show isn’t going to be on par with Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and its brutal interrogation challenge. The stars will be “celebronauts” who will have to colonize and conquer their surroundings in a new galaxy, all while competing to be the last one standing. Shatner is on board as Mission Control, whose role will be delivering intergalactic tasks to the celebronauts on the red planet.
While the premise might sound somewhat silly and the show obviously won’t involve anybody actually leaving the atmosphere and traveling to Mars, it will pit contestants against conditions authentic to what they would experience living on Mars, requiring brains, brawn, and social skills to last to the end. Eliminations will come down to voting, and eliminated celebronauts are sent back to Earth… a.k.a. sent home from competition. Fox hasn’t announced any participating stars at this point, but Shatner shared an on-brand statement about Stars on Mars:
Good news for our celebronauts from Mission Control. Thanks to lower gravity on Mars, you’ll weigh 62% less. Bad news: the air is unbreathable, so if you’re from LA, it’ll remind you of home.
On the whole, Stars on Mars sounds a lot more lighthearted than Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, and I can imagine that it might have been easier to recruit celebrities to what sounds more like a silly version of Survivor with an outer space theme than anything too physically grueling. Then again, it’s still early! The preview for the new project doesn’t give away much more than that Stars on Mars really is embracing its theme:
Stars on Mars marks William Shatner’s return to Fox after his “unusual” experience on on The Masked Singer as The Knight. Shatner didn’t last too long on the singing show, but his reveal left an impact on fellow contestant (and former boybander) Chris Kirkpatrick! Being cut from The Masked Singer evidently didn’t sour Shatner on the network, and fans of the actor can just wonder what exactly being Mission Control will entail with Stars on Mars.
At the time of writing, Fox hasn’t revealed an official premiere date for Stars on Mars, but the new show will hit the airwaves at some point in June. It sounds like viewers will see a different side of William Shatner, who recently went from explaining his approach to Kirk’s fate in Star Trek to calling out Elon Musk. As for what else is coming to TV in the coming months, there are plenty of other summer options that have already received their dates, and you can find them on our 2023 TV premiere schedule.