In addition to speaking to Kate Mulgrew, TrekMovie also participated in an NYCC group interview with Star Trek: Prodigy executive producers/co-creators Kevin and Dan Hageman and executive producer/director Ben Hibon. The producers talked to us and a handful of other outlets about how the animated show isn’t just for kids, how it fits in with other Trek, and even about the likelihood that we’ll see some legacy characters on the show.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Was Prodigy an idea you brought to CBS Paramount and Nickelodeon or were you asked to develop a Star Trek show for kids by them, and Prodigy came from that?
Dan Hageman: The latter. Secret Hideout came to us and said, ‘We would love to figure out an entry point for the Star Trek universe for a younger audience.’ And then Kevin and I kind of went away and then we came back and said we’d like to make this show, and they were enthusiastic about it, and the rest is on the screen.
Kevin Hageman: At first we were really nervous about doing a Trek show because I don’t think I could write an episode of, let’s say, Voyager. But when we left that meeting, we’re like, ‘Well, what would we do?’ And we decided, ‘Wait a minute, if these main characters are outside of everything Starfleet and they start to discover it and learn it and stuff like that.’ That’s really relatable and it’s a wonderful jumping-off point for kids, right? For most shows, it’s always these fully formed officers who just know everything. The best of the best. What kid is the best of the best?
Dan Hageman: I think the first thing we would say very early on is: ‘We don’t want to work on little Kirk and little Spock.’
Kevin Hageman: That sounds like it sounds like a terrible show.
Dan Hageman: I’m sure it has an audience, but we don’t want to write that.
What was the most difficult thing to adapt from Star Trek for a kids’ show?
Dan Hageman: Well we always try to blur the line. We never really view it as a kid show. We view it as a show for people who don’t know Star Trek, which could be young or old. And so we always had that perspective of the outsider and that freed us up. We wanted to keep the stakes real for an older audience. We never want to dumb things down for kids. Kids are really smart. They may have a learning curve in the show, but they’ll get there.
Kevin Hageman: I think the hardest part is the balancing of the tone. It’s really hard as a writer to get that tone that will hit everyone. The comedy needs to be smart. The storytelling needs to be really clever. It’s got to work for both kids and adults. That’s always the challenge
Dan Hageman: A lot of Star Trek is already is great for all ages. But there’s always a few episodes that might not be appropriate for kids and for our show I’m sure we’ll all avoid those episodes.
What were some of the challenges of translating the live-action world of Star Trek into your 3D animation style?
Ben Hibon: I don’t I don’t think we necessarily try to carry through a certain or specific style from something else as much as trying to create something new that would capture all the elements that we’re looking for. So it’s kind of looking at the page, looking at the intentions of the character and the ambition of the show as a character-driven story. And then how do we best capture this with animation. Therefore, we decided to go very cinematic in terms of the scale of the adventure.
We wanted to have something that would fit really nicely within other Trek shows because we’re canon. It is a continuation. So we wanted that realism of the world itself to feel as realized as other Trek shows. That also dictated how we would design the world itself, the background, how lived-in it is, how tangible in texture it is. Those are the different pieces that we’ve been looking at doing.
For character design, we wanted to have something that had a sufficient amount of facial detail, being able to emote very much so we could really focus on close-ups and emotion as much as the danger, the stakes, the fun, the adventure, all of these elements. We wanted to be able to shoot it at any distance for it to look good.
For Ben, how does directing for Star Trek compare with your other work like Heavenly Sword and Harry Potter?
Ben Hibon: Thanks to Kevin and Dan and Nickelodeon and Paramount, there was a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and freedom in terms of really creating something that did not necessarily need to mirror anything prior to it. Aside from tone, respecting rules in terms of what was established. But in terms of visually creating imageries, it was very flexible, very organic, and therefore very creative.
I can say the same for the Harry Potter animation; for example, where we made an animated version of a fantastical world. But that piece of content did not exist in that mythology yet. And I think it’s the same here. We’re adding a piece of the puzzle without duplicating it. We’re just creating an addition to it. And by doing that, and using a different medium, it just gives us a lot of lateral movement. We can go back to the known, we can explore the unknown, and hopefully just marry the two in an interesting way.
From Star Trek: Prodigy
Is Captain Janeway the only hologram that you guys actually considered?
Kevin Hageman: One hundred percent we knew it was Kate right away.
Dan Hageman: We knew it right after it was like, ‘In case you don’t know anything about Star Trek.’ And then Kate Mulgrew. It went in that order.
Kevin Hageman: She’s loving but disciplined. She just fit that perfect mentor for a bunch of wayward kids. ‘
And are there going to be other appearances of other hologram characters from Star Trek?
Kevin Hageman: Let’s just say yes, there will be other holograms. But I don’t want to make it sound like legacy characters who might show up in our show are going to be holograms. Our kids are starting in the Delta Quadrant and they’re venturing into Federation space, the Federation space of all the other shows at that time period. So we might see real characters coming in, not as holograms.
(L-R) Dan Hageman, Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Kate Mulgrew, Kevin Hageman, Ben Hibon and Brett Gray at New York Comic Con 2021
Since the USS Protostar is an NX experimental ship with a cadet training program, are there going to be new surprises for Trek fans?
Dan Hageman: There’s some big secrets about the ship that will be explored. And the season revolves around some of those secrets.
Kevin Hageman: Even though you guys have seen the ads and you knew Janeway would show up, when we first wrote the pilot, no one had any idea until you get to that last page and all of a sudden Janeway shows up and it was really, really shocking. We love mystery. We love moments like that. And there will be many more.
You just announced four new characters including Captain Chakotay, which sounds like the crew of a starship. Can you say anything more about them, and are they the original crew of the Protostar?
Kevin Hageman: [Laughs] Nice question, but we can’t tell you anything, except you are wrong on [them being former Protostar crew].
Dan Hageman: We have to keep our details tight on that one.
Kevin Hageman: Oh yeah. Top secret.
The USS Protostar
Prodigy arrives next week
The Prodigy debut will be available to stream on Paramount+ in the United States on October 28. The series is also coming to Paramount+ in Latin America, the Nordics, and Australia, and CTV Sci-Fi in Canada. It will debut in 2022 in parts of Europe with the launch of the Paramouint+ Sky partnership.
Keep up with the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
I’d be interested to know why they chose to ground it in an existing show as opposed to the broader Star Trek mythos and why Voyager.
Not because there’s anything wrong with that – rather Voyager had already been off the air for years by the time the primary intended audience was born so it doesn’t seem like a particularly obvious hook.
But I think that’s the point though. They want to introduce new fans to classic Star Trek and the best way to do that is to bring in old characters to start getting them familiar with the universe while giving hardcore fans more of a reason to tune in as well. It’s literally the same idea with the Kelvin movies. They were designed to get new fans knowing about TOS (which has been off the air a bit longer than Voyager ;)) and Star Trek in general to build a new fanbase and of course get the old fanbase more excited for the film bringing in iconic characters. How successful that ultimately turned out probably had mixed results but that was the point.
And if you’re new to Star Trek what difference would it make if it’s an old or new character? For new fans its all the same. But in this case, after they watch Prodigy, they now have 172 episodes of the real Katherine Janeway that’s sitting beside Prodigy on Paramount+. to watch.
Ultimately that’s really the point right? To get kids familiar with Trek young and start tapping into that vast library they have over there! Very smart move.
They sort of did the same thing with The Sarah Jane Adventures on BBC back in the day. None of the kids would have seen the original Doctor Who from the 70s. But they still brought back an iconic character to introduce kids to the original era, sort of.
Exactly!
Star Wars obviously did the same thing with The Clone Wars. They wanted to introduce young kids to the universe and they used both new and iconic characters to do that with. Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan were the star of that show while they had a lot of new characters like Ashoka Tano. And basically any known Star Wars characters that was around in that period showed up multiple times. And then they repeated the same idea with Rebels and with The Bad Batch now. Those shows covered every major SW character in detail.
I think the exact same thing will happen on this show. Now that we know it will take place in both the Delta and Alpha Quadrants, they will probably be bringing in a mix of TNG era characters like LDS is doing now. But they may even find a way to show TOS and ENT characters as well, maybe through holograms or the holodeck since they obviously can’t just randomly show up like the others.
Unfortunately this being a kids show, I have a feeling we won’t ever see Dr. T’Ana’s potty mouth ever make an appearance! ;D
Two main reasons:
1.Of all the Star Trek shows on streaming, Voyager has the highest viewership.
2.Impressionable adolescents who grew up watching Voyager likely now have impressionable kids. They will watch together
Which has always struck me as weird since Voyager is such a weakly written and acted show compared to the others.
I’ve always loved the show. It’s my third favorite out of the franchise, flaws and all! It’s probably a number of factors why its still popular, from having the Borg on more to a lot of the favorite characters like Janeway, Seven, the Doctor, etc. For me personally it’s really the best show when it comes to pure exploration and just a lot of trippy episodes! I love those episodes a lot in Trek and Voyager has tons of them lol.
I just rewatched the entire series of it this year and had a blast! :)
BINGO. People often forget that companies will often target PARENTS of kids as much as kids. That stops with stuff aimed at kids around, I don’t know, 11 or 12 maybe. But 6-10? Prime age to be targeting the parents. It was my dad who got me into TNG at that age.
Obviously agreed. It seems to be very popular show these days and I know for a lot of newcomers to the franchise Voyager attracts a lot of them as well. And yes lots of people who grew up with it are still watching it today like people who grew up with TOS and TNG.
So not surprised this show will have such a heavy Voyager influence, I was just talking about why they are going this route in general. But I’m very happy just to have Janeway back! That will get tons of people to check out the show. I still hope we get her on Picard or even Lower Decks in the future.
Nothing ever dies in Star Trek! ;)
“Unfortunately this being a kids show, I have a feeling we won’t ever see Dr. T’Ana’s potty mouth ever make an appearance!” —that’s not necessarily so, however I absolutely agree with you and with the show-runners that some material will simply not appear in PRODIGY, such as potty-mouth dialogue. That being said, I suspect that every ST character has moments where their better judgement takes hold: if Dr. T’Ana does ever appear in ST: PRO, who’s to say that when she meets the kids (—by that time they’ll more than likely be well-rehearsed young officers who try to do the right thing as do all Starfleet officers—), she may be put-off by some at first, but the instant she realizes their worth and value as fellow beings, and also how FAST they’ve become who they are by that time, I suspect the so-called potty-mouth mentality will be the last thing on her mind to speak. I believe these new characters will have that in their hearts, and I also believe that T’Ana has that tremendous capacity as well. That’s also what Star Trek is about.
For sure TOS has been off air longer than Voyager but Kirk and Spock are pop culture characters and TOS recognised outside of fandom. Janeway and Chakotay? Not even close.
No, it’s an odd choice.
If we went by ‘well Kirk and Spock are the only iconic characters non-fans know’ then we would not have the Star Trek we have today. It would be a very tiny (and dull) world. First of all, is an 7 or 8 year kid going to know who Kirk and Spock is today? Chances are no UNLESS someone else watches Star Trek in that household. And do they care? Again UNLESS someone is already watching…
Secondly, Prodigy at least has a very popular legacy character the is HUGE for Star Trek fans. we have Discovery and Lower Decks on now. Those are also brand new characters, but those are shows aimed mostly towards old fans.
Having Janeway is already a big plus because someone else already said it for me; the show is trying to bring in all the people and parents who watches Voyager AND have kids themselves to watch this show because of it. That’s the point.
I hear what people are saying when it comes to ‘known’ characters, but it’s always a bit eye rolling to me. Look at MCU, ask yourself how many characters they made $150 million movies with were truly ‘iconic’ until they show up in the theaters? For every Spider Man, you still get Shang Chi and GOTG that are a complete blank to 90% of the world. And look how well those movies do! Because MCU was smart enough to market the universe as the brand beyond all else, the characters are really only secondary. And you want to know the other reason why it works so well for MCU? Because it is kid driven! They love that universe and any character that pops in it, they love them instantly if they heard of them or not!
Sadly that’s what Star Trek is missing. It is a universe fans who already indoctrinated like us love and obsess over. We welcome new characters ALL the time, hence why we now have 10 shows. It just doesn’t get the kind of drive like Marvel or Star Wars universe gets; part of the problem because it is seen as more adult and cerebral. But that’s sadly the story of Star Trek lol.
Hopefully more shows like Prodigy will just get younger kids into the fan base more and turn it around in a few years where the universe AS A WHOLE just excites them and not any one character. I don’t think this one show will do that completely but it’s a start. And Janeway will be the leader to help do that!
Thinking back to when I first saw TNG long ago, I don’t believe I knew the significance of the name Enterprise or this old man named McCoy being escorted by Data. I was just there for the sci-fi and… jellyfish. Learning about (and enjoying) TOS came later.
So, thank you, TNG, for making those introductions.
Also another reason might be that I remember reading here on this site that Voyager was very popular on Netflix so they might have used that data as well.
Nevermind, i was just repeating what several others were saying./
Big choice for a legacy character: Neelix. I think he would fit it quite well with Prodigy.
On another note, I have to say I am very excited for Prodigy to drop. I have two younger kids and I have been hyping up the show to them (especially the older). I really hope the show does itself justice and my kids can get involved with a franchise that I have loved since 1990.
I agree 100% about Neelix. Was thinking of him from the minute I heard they were in the Delta Quadrant!
Neelix practically screams a kids character. In some ways it may have been interesting to have him on that ship too since he knows both about the Delta Quadrant and working on a Starfleet ship for so long. He also could’ve been an interesting father figure to them like how he was to Naomi Wildman. And he learned about the Federation practically the same way as they will, through Janeway.
I am super excited for this show now! It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun on its own but they are teasing HARD about legacy characters showing up, so I can’t wait to see who else we get. I’m guessing a few Voyager characters obviously but I’m really really hoping we get some DS9 representation! C’mon guys, that was a Star Trek show too, a really popular one at that. Like Voyager, it seems more popular today than when it was on. But I digress!
And I’m happy that Chakotay and his crew aren’t part of the Protostar which sounds like he will have his own ship after all on say maybe….Voyager herself? I’m still waiting for Worf to show up on Enterprise E but maybe the Chakotay/Voyager connection has a stronger shot. ;)
That would be great if Chakotay is captain of Voyager, I’d love to see Worf in command of the Enterprise too but canonically speaking this show is a little too early. If I’m remembering correctly Picard stepped down as Captain of the Enrerprise to take charge of the Romulus evacuation and that supernova occurred in 2387 whereas Prodigy is set in 2383. There’s still Picard season 3 for that though!
My hope for S2 of Picard is that we see the christening of the Enterprise F, with an all-new Captain and crew– no holdovers– and they can spin that into its own show or better yet, a movie. We’ve never had a movie that introduces an entirely new ship and crew.
I’d be totally down with Picard launching an Enterprise F and then having a TV or movie series with a brand new crew focused on it but I still think I’d like to see the E again prior to that. We saw the final missions for the 1701, the 1701-A and 1701-D, it would be nice to do the same for 1701-E and it would only seem fitting to have some of the characters that were associated with her to for so long to be there for her swan song.
I don’t want to get my hopes up TOO much but it is telling that we haven’t seen a single photo of Chakotay or his now crew; nor been told the name of his ship. I think we’re in for a HUGE surprise (but prepared to be disappointed of course). And he also becomes Captain of Voyager in the novels once Janeway became Admiral.
And I was talking about Worf being Captain of the big E during the Picard era…and one of those times I was disappointed. But yeah we still got 2 more seasons for that to change. And of course it doesn’t have to be Worf as the captain, we just want to see the damn ship!
But man WOULDN’T it be exciting we got two Enterprises (the ‘original’ and the E-E) and Voyager in within the year? Fans would lose it lol. At least we know ONE Enterprise is confirmed. ;)
BTW, I know you live in Europe. Is there any word when the show is coming your way?
I’m guessing that it will be whenever Paramount+ launches on Sky TV but we haven’t been given a launch date for that. I vaguely recall spring being mention for a potential launch window but I could be mixing that up with something else. I’m still hoping that they might show Prodigy on one of the other sky channels so we can get the episodes close to the North American air date. I suspect that had LDS aired in sync with with US and I’d watched the first season weekly without spoilers I’d have come round to it sooner.
I’d love to see the Enterprise E appear in the show, I think I would feel slightly cheated if Worf wasn’t in command though if I’m completely honest. I know the novels aren’t canon but there have been Easter eggs placed in some of the Discovery and Picard novels that have been referenced on screen so the reveal that Worf had been made captain of the E felt like it was hinting at something.
I just love the character of Worf though so I’d even be open to this proposed Worf centric ‘dramedy’. That this series would be primarily a comedy makes me think it’s premise would place the character in a role/situation in which his particular talents were not an obvious fit so I’d be surprised if it was set on the Enterprise or had anything to do with Dorn’s pitch. I’d be fine with that though, I’d just like to see Worf in command of the Enterprise at least once before that.
Man the distribution is starting to be more of an issue outside of America though. Hopefully you guys will get it sooner than later though but it sounds like not until next year the soonest. And it does sound like Paramount+ trying to launch in other places seems to be the other issue. I remember alllll the moaning over Discovery being thrown on AA in America while others got it on Netflix outside of America minus Canada. People were SO upset about it then and how others were ‘lucky’ outside of America for getting it on Netflix. Today not a single peep about it. On top of it, now the tables have really turned and outside of America people seem to be getting screwed. Some countries has to have three streaming sites just to watch all the shows now. It’s getting nuts lol.
I’m open to the Worf show idea too. And thanks to LDS, the word ‘comedy’ doesn’t bother me like before when it comes to Star Trek. A lot of us was afraid it was just going to be Family Guy in space and really silly. But instead it’s a really smart comedy (and to be fair to Family Guy, it’s also smart, but it has a lot of gutter humor which puts some people off of it). I think if we get a Worf show and it is a comedy it will be a more traditional one. I am curious to see how they did it, but rewatching all of TNG and DS9 this year, Worf is REALLY funny. He’s so deadpan but it really works for that character. And I just want more Worf lol!
Hopefully he at least shows up on Picard ON the Enterprise soon! ;)
LDS has made me more open Star Trek comedies but I still think they need to be careful with how far they take it in live action. As you know I struggled a bit with Lower Decks during the first season but I did rewatch it before season 2 started and watching it for what it is as opposed to what I wanted from an animated show helped me appreciate it more. I still have issues with it but not so much on the comedy side. My biggest gripe is some of the ridiculous things they’ve introduced to canon like the dooplers. That’s a relatively small complaint though as it’s not like the live action series are not littered with silly concepts and I do think that the second season continued to improve the show. Worf can be funny though and there have been plenty of good comedic episodes of Star Trek so I see no reason why this couldn’t be a good show.
Yeah, even though this is a kids show it seems like the show could also appeal to legacy fans too. I will definitely check out the series premiere next week.
I know many love LDs, but based on the trailers, it appears Prodigy will have a more understated or more serous tone to the show compared to LDs and that appeals to me. Of course this is still an animated show about a ship crewed by kids, so along with comedy of course, the crew will understandably act like kids instead of regimented Starfleet cadet graduates (like red squad) haha.
No matter what, Discovery thankfully is no longer on its own trying to appeal to all Trek fans for P+. Now new Star Trek will be available virtually 12 months of the year with a wide variety of both live action and animated shows appealing to different and new audiences and that is fantastic.
Definitely agreed. I think Prodigy will be a nice alternative to the fans who think LDS is Satanic TV. ;)
And that’s entirely the point as you said. The shows are made to appeal to DIFFERENT people. Obviously we want to like everything, but its OK if you don’t either. With so many shows now, you can just pick and choose the ones you like and watch those. But Star Trek fans are such fickle people at times. If it doesn’t appeal to them directly then they want it to basically end like the Kelvin movies (and looks like their wish is finally coming true with those) and of course all the new Kurtzman shows, the biggest being Discovery IMO. When the new movies or Discovery was ONLY one thing on and you hated it, I understood the resentment. But now people have options. And by next year they will have a lot more. Watch what appeals to you instead of complaining about the 1 or 2 shows that don’t. Of course easier said than done. And there are some who clearly hates everything new from 2009 to the present, not much you can do for those people.
As for Prodigy, I could be completely wrong but I have a feeling most are going to really like it even though its a show not directly aimed at long time fans. But the way the producers talk about it it’s probably appealing to a lot of us who loves it when they talk about the history and ideals of the Federation. And the mystery arc sounds interesting that DOESN’T lead to the end of the galaxy (hopefully ;)). And finally, it looks like exploration will be a big part of the show which is why I’m also excited about it and why I loved Voyager so much. It really was the first Star Trek show where exploring was actually vital to the ship. Seems like Prodigy is repeating that.
I’m so happy they’ve got kids on the frontier that aren’t the same old same old bland TNG/VOY types who want to just play holodeck. Here are some kids looking for freedom and adventure in the final frontier with something to learn.
Refreshing!
Also love the starship with the red TOS style nacelles! Looks good!!
My only real recommendation would be the bridge – should have made it less airplane and more functional with colourful displays, etc. Still time to fix with holo monitors!!
A real attraction for kids in my experience is all the colours of the TOS bridge. Doesn’t look boring!
With the exception of I, Erectus, I suspect Prodigy will be more mature than the rest of LDX. And has the potential to attract more adults than kids.
It’ll be more mature in tone as it’s a drama with humor aimed at kids vs a Comedy with some dramatic elements.
I’m not sure which description matches which show. I’d guess LDX is the former and Prodigy is that later.
VOY’s Hope and Fear had a (fake) experimental starship sent by the Federation to the Delta Quadrant with no crew in order to bring home the Voyager crew. My guess is that the Protostar was a Starfleet attempt to do that for real. But Voyager got those unknown-to-Starfleet big boosts from Arturis’s technology, the Borg transwarp gadget, and that alien slingshot thing and wasn’t anywhere near where they sent the Protostar. That’s why the ship has no crew, and that’s how the kids get to the Alpha Quadrant so fast. The Janeway training hologram had been installed in the ship as a tribute to Janeway when she was declared dead along with the rest of the Voyager crew, as the Doctor learned (and corrected) in Message in a Bottle.
Well, the hairstyle indicates a Pre-VOY origin of the Janeway hologram. Bur´t I doubt it. The real reason for going with the S1 hairdo is that it’s a lot easier to animate than open hair.
But in order to create a sophisticated holographic version, they’d need to incorporate her psychogram, experience etc… I guess they need to “record” and examine her in greater detail after her return home. No, I guess the Protostar is a prototype sent after VOY’s return using experimental tech to establish a continuous presence in the DQ…
and the uniform is a concession likely that she needed to wear something instantly recognizable as Janeway even if its not what the uniform is in this era. perhaps nostalgia on the in-universe designer as well.
The uniform originally threw me off too. It seem like she would either be wearing the First Contact uniforms OR maybe the uniforms we saw in the flashback we saw in Picard. We saw those a few years before this show takes place.
But yeah, most likely because that’s the uniform Janeway and the crew wore on Voyager and they want that to be an instant identifier for fans. I am curious what the rest of starfleet will be wearing like Chakotay.
If they don’t use Robert Picardo at some point, it will be a wasted opportunity.
He is the OG Hologram
They “only thought of Kate” (note they said “Kate,” not “Voyager”) because she’s the only female Trek lead, and the lawless teens need mothering.
This would have a bigger audience and would bring in more new fans if it had been on Nick instead of Paramount + streaming.
It will be on Nick eventually.
It was originally announced as Nick exclusive for something like the first year, then coming to CBS All Access. At some point, that seems to have been reversed.
I believe that the issue is with the contracts with the cable carriers in the United States.
ComCast and others want to use children’s programming to push young families back to cable from streaming.
So, there are provisions that would have required ViacomCBS to wait a year or more to stream Prodigy on Paramount+ if it broadcast first on Nickelodeon.
This runs counter to ViacomCBS new corporate policy giving priority to streaming and avoiding exclusive releases on cable or other streamers that prevent getting new content up on Paramount+or their other streamers.
It’s really comes down to more exclusive content for Paramount+. That’s pretty much the long and short of it. Cable companies have no oversight over programming on the channels they carry. If Viacom wanted to run the original Blues Clues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Nick it’s ultimately their call. For Comcast and others it’s all about the carriage fees, not the content on the channels.
There’s quite a bit of original, new content on Nick but on Paramount+, Nick exclusives (and exclusives in general) are few. This also ensures that Paramount+ is the exclusive home for new, original Star Trek content.
Actually, Denny C, while it is surprising, I read in industry media sources the carriage agreements recently renegotiated do have requirements for new content to be cable only until after the season is broadcast in the United States.
HBO Max has been facing this with its new DC/Arrowverse on the CW.
So, if there is interest to get new shows out internationally through their own streamers (who are expanding their footprint) waiting for a season to run on Nickelodeon first would be an issue.
I can’t go into much detail but there are a lot of moving pieces in place (the CW as a broadcast network co-owned by ViacomCBS is a bit of co-branded synergy of the like we’re unlikely to see again).
Someone likely made the call to shift the series (and its budget for future seasons) to Paramount+. How it will perform with the intended demo is anyone’s guess but I suspect it’s going to skew older (possibly quite a bit older).
It’s interesting that Ad Week has given its annual kudos to Paramount+ as the best source of content for kids.
The ViacomCBS priority branding of P+ as a streaming destination for families vs Nick on cable seems to be getting buy-in.
Ad-Week also noted the P+ undertaking to make 2 South Park movies per year.
While South Park is dubious as kids’ entertainment, it gives a bit of a confirmation that P+ may try to have products that bridge a few demographics.
I’m curious if there’ll be anything in this for a man in his 30s, not a parent or anything like that. I know they want it to appeal to children and adults but I wonder if it’ll stick the landing for just adults. I’m worried it won’t.
The only way to know is to watch and see it for themselves. I think a LOT of adults without kids will be watching it because it has Star Trek in the title. And they clearly know that because they keep pushing in the PR its a show that adults can get into like the other shows. But no one will really know until they watch it for themselves.
But I also believe if they took what Star Wars did with their animated shows, it won’t be a problem at all.
If it ends up Rebels quality then I will be a happy audience member.
The animation seems even more subtle. The expressions around the eyes and across the faces match live-action performances by top actors.
I wonder what happens to holographic Janeway if she runs out of holographic coffee…
Sorry… I couldn’t resist… :-)
You couldn’t resist… what, exactly?
Continuing my rerun of VOY and noticing Janeways addiction to coffee, I couldn’t resist joking about that. 😁
“Star Trek: Prodigy”
Next up — “Star Trek: CompuServe”
Saw yesterday’s new short trailer. Reminded me of the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.
Despite being a kid’s show, very much looking forward to the series premiere.