I also don't believe it will ever beat star wars in popularity. Still, i can see it now, with this new movie star trek is on it's way to being at least comparable to star wars in popularity because right now star wars is a couple dozen light years more popular. A new series is definitely possible although i dont think it'll happen until after at least 1 sequel. But even so i dont think it needs to. Movies these days are what gets a franchise to become a cultural phenomenon and tv series are just a symptom of that status, generally.
Star Trek is a more psychological/dramatic universe than is the Star Wars universe. Star Wars is a brilliant world that mirrors our past in a future setting. Star Trek on the other hand is more about progression. It's about the future's future. It deals with more controversial issues and questions humanities current state and asks: where is it going? In this aspect i actually like star trek better, it's more mature i guess. But Star Trek isn't as fun. It has less factors or niche's than Star Wars. About both the scope of both their universes i'd have to argue that it's much closer to a toss up. You shouldnt measure the size of their respective universe by tallying up their media library(films, series, books, games). I agree maybe star trek is larger but only slightly. The star wars universe goes far beyond the films and tv shows or lack there of. Video games have greatly expanded the star wars universe both 1000s of years in the past and hundreds in the future. And many of the backstories these games are based on have been recorded either previous to the games or after the factin the form of literature, so they definitely need to be accounted for.
