"The character was just in everybody's mind": Star Trek icon Ethan Peck opens up about the significance of the Vulcan hand salute

Star Trek star Ethan Peck jumped on the Peak Talk ski lift with Josh Horowitz, heading up Paramount Mountain. They got into everything Spock: stuff like the Vulcan Hand Salute, what Spock means to fans, and all the excitement around Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

But the real highlight was their chat about the Vulcan Hand Salute. You know it: hand raised, palm out, fingers split into that classic V-shape.

Peck digs into what the salute really means to him. It is not just a handshake or a gimmick. He remembers being a kid, out on the playground, trying to get his fingers into the right shape: sometimes he nailed it, sometimes his hand just wouldn’t cooperate. Some people can do it right off the bat, while others can’t.

Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, came up with the gesture, pulling inspiration from Jewish traditions. Now, it is a symbol for Vulcan tradition: peace, goodwill, and more. And it has turned into a universal way to wish someone well.

Talking with Peck, you get the sense that the salute carries some serious weight for him. As the new Spock, he feels both the pressure and the privilege. He knows how much that gesture means to fans everywhere.

Star Trek icon Ethan Peck on the significance of the Vulcan hand salute

While having a conversation about “to talk all things Spock and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”, Josh Horowitz mentioned the Vulcan Hand Salute. Josh stated:

“I feel like the famous Vulcan salute is either something you can do or can’t do.”

To which Ethan Peck replied, saying:

“It is kind of true, a lot of people just can’t do it. But I actually have a memory, on the playground, in, like, fourth grade, doing the Vulcan salute because it was so prevalent. The character was just in everybody’s mind, in culture, in society. And so, I knew that I could do it as soon as I discovered what the role was, so there was no fear about that.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Ethan Peck’s portrayal of Spock

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds made its debut on Paramount+ on May 5, 2022. The first season was composed of a total of ten episodes, which were released gradually week by week until the end of July. In the meantime, the series continued uninterrupted. A second season followed in 2023, and now a third one in July 2025, again on Paramount+.

This series is kind of a big deal for Paramount+. It dives into the early days of the Starship Enterprise, with Captain Pike at the helm. But the heart of it all is Ethan Peck’s version of Spock. He plays Spock as a young man, still figuring himself out. Peck’s take feels fresh, but you can tell he respects the original, too. You see Spock wrestling with his human and Vulcan sides: logic on one shoulder, emotion on the other.

Peck hasn’t shied away from talking about how intimidating it is to step into Spock’s shoes. In an interview with ScreenRant, he opened up about the pressure, especially since the show really isn’t afraid to try new things. Still, he is all in. Peck sees the risk as a chance to dig deeper into who Spock is, while still honoring what Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto brought to the role.

Peck added:

“...there is some terror, but the pace of production is so quick that there isn’t a lot of time to ruminate in that terror, or think about how things could go wrong. You really can only think about how things can go right. You just can’t think too much about it.”

His version of Spock really walks that line: always keeping up the Vulcan calm, but letting bits of his human emotions show through.

Notably, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is returning for its fourth season. Paramount+ announced the news in April 2024, during the shooting of the third season, thus making it official. The team started working on the fourth season in March 2025 and wrapped it up by August, with all filming done at CBS Stages Canada in Mississauga, Ontario.

The new episodes are likely to be released on Paramount+ in 2026, probably in May or June, thus sticking to that familiar summer launch time.

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Showrunner Akiva Goldsman seems genuinely fired up about this next chapter. He has called season four some of the team’s strongest work yet, even after all the strikes and headaches they faced shooting earlier seasons.

On top of that, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is also getting a fifth and final season. That news came through in June 2025, with the filming set to kick off later in the year. The plan is to wrap up the entire story in five seasons, following the early adventures of the USS Enterprise under Captain Pike.

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