Details about Nickelodeon’s Star Trek: Prodigy are sparse, but the big reveal from last year is that it will star Kate Mulgrew reprising her Star Trek: Voyager role of Kathryn Janeway. Now Mulgrew has given an update on her work on the show.
Mulgrew talks Prodigy
On Saturday, Kate Mulgrew and other members of the Star Trek: Voyager cast were part of a GalaxyCon Live event. After the free Q&A, each participated in some brief one-on-one chats. Fan @jemabean1 posted her Mulgrew chat on Twitter, which ended with the actress giving a brief update on her work for Star Trek: Prodigy:
jemabean1: We’re so excited about Prodigy
Mulgrew: And now you can enjoy it. I think you will enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed doing it, and I think we’re going into the next season very soon.
Watch the full exchange below.
Had another amazing chat with @TheKateMulgrew!! SHE’S THE ABSOLUTE BEST!! 😍🥰❤️Thank you for another wonderful experience!@galaxyconlive !!! #Janeway #StarTrekVoyager pic.twitter.com/eBxYWq5wXd
— 🟡🟡🟡🟡 Jemabean #JCdeservedBetter#MakeJChappen♥️ (@jemabean1) January 23, 2021
UPDATE: More from Mulgrew
Reader Josh Metcalf has highlighted his one-on-one chat with Mulgrew, where she goes into a bit more detail on Prodigy, saying…
Matcalf: I’m looking forward to hearing your voice more on Prodigy.
Mulgrew: I’m really enjoying recording that cartoon. It’s very sophisticated. It’s feature-film quality. The Hageman brothers [co-creators] are geniuses. And [executive producer] Alex Kurtzman is a great, great leader. A visionary. I think it’s time for the little ones to come into the fold.
Watch it below…
Reference voice pattern. pic.twitter.com/yCXLDOgFPf
— Josh “Cake is eternal” Metcalf (@JoshMetcalf4701) January 24, 2021
Prodigy is coming to Nickelodeon in 2021
CBS first announced the CG-animated Trek series in April 2019, with Nickelodeon giving the show a two-season order. It is being developed by Emmy winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters). The series follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation.
The title for the Trek series targeting a new generation of fans was revealed during virtual Comic-Con last summer, which also confirmed a 2021 release for the first season. Mulgrew’s inclusion on the show was revealed last October during the virtual NYCC.
In case you missed it, you can watch that announcement video with Mulgrew below.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
Hoping it’s accessible to all ages!
Just turn on Nickelodeon ;)
I don’t have cable tv. Hope it shows up on CBSAA before too long.
Nickelodeon has a dedicated channel within CBSAA/Paramount+, so would expect Prodigy to show up there sooner rather than later.
I don’t see how it couldn’t be accessible for all ages. If it’s a kid’s show it certainly is because I happen to be a mental preteen at the age of 41 suffering from Peter Pan Syndrome.
LD on the other hand is accissible for NO ages. Too childish and frantic for adults and too brutal and provocative for kids. I don’t get who the target audiences is. But then I was never able to handle “adult” animated comedy. It just doesn’t make sense to me due to my autism.
Since Lower Decks is excellent, your point is moot.
MAYBE it is a matter of taste but I simply cannot decipher those characters on LD. They all behave like total morons at times. It’s not the fact it’s animated. Clone Wars and Rebels were excellent contributions to Star Wars. But LD is nothing like that. It’s like the Family Guy Star Wars Trilogy! Only that it is part of the official franchise this time and that doesn’t make any sense to me…
You are 100% correct. LD was a complete misfire, and frankly, it’s getting a little tiresome hearing Rios and a couple of others here constantly drool over that piss-poor excuse for Star Trek.
I have seldom seen any television show which annoys me so much as LD. Two-and-a-half Men and Scandal, perhaps?
We don’t agree on much but I think LDX is pretty much at Two and Half Men level, yes.
Discovery? Picard?
Rios, please knock of off the gatekeeping.
You don’t speak for all Star Trek fans.
Stop Gatekeeping old as…
Maybe you just have bad taste.
Or maybe you do?
Maybe he has a brain and actually uses it?
Says the guy who misspelled “Methuselah.”
It’s a very large sparkling wine bottle, Mensa.
When you say “all ages” I’m hoping it you mean it will be enjoyable to adults as well even though it’s aimed at kids. Like Rebels and Clone Wars was.
YES!! Clone Wars should be exactly what they are aiming for.
Ironically TAS too was something adult Trek fans could watch along side their kids. It *is* Star Trek but cool and entertaining enough for kids.
Yes, there were a number of TAS episodes that would have made pretty good live action 1 hr episodes. For me, the hardest part in watching TAS was the cheap filmation animation style and the same tiresome canned music cues. And it always bugged me they didn’t/couldn’t (don’t know which) use the Courage theme.
Well that is definitely what I’d like to see; an animated Trek series that is similar in style to Clone Wars.
Prodigy I’m guessing is going to be more a kiddie show, but it would be nice if it actually has a mature style in presentation.
Something like Scooby Doo, in terms of accessibility.
I mean all ages watch Scooby .. at least I do, at 29 closing in on 30! (lol)
You will not be pleased to hear that I NEVER liked Scooby-Doo. Even as a very young child I thought there was something weird about it. And I HATED that the ghosts were always some person trying to “scare” people away. Nope. Wasn’t a fan when I was 7. Not a fan now.
So looking forward to a legitimate animated Star Trek series aimed at families, and that doesn’t have horribly annoying characters, and doesn’t try to cover up bad storytelling with the canon reference gimmick of the week.
Other than Janeway you don’t know any of the characters on Prodigy yet. A “group of lawless teens” sounds like it can be pretty annoying. Also, you don’t know absolutely anything about the storytelling yet.
The promo says, “adventure, meaning, and salvation,” and Mulgrew says it’s “sophisticated.” So based on this, I said, “So looking forward…” And also based on this, it sounds much more interesting than the LD complete misfire.
Of course I haven’t seen it yet, but from what I am hearing of it I think this is going to be much more in line with what I would like in a Trek animated series. MY OPINION!
To me, when I heard the premise that mentioned “lawless teens” I just facepalmed at the concept. It does NOT sound promising. That said, I will still check it out when it shows up in Nick in the hopes that it will end up being more. But honestly, the expectations are VERY low.
but its true.
LD is great.
Picard and Data get a well-written, well-acted, riveting coda to TNG.
Janeway gets an animated show where she mothers lawless teens.
What a tremendous victory for feminism.
“I was the first female captain…now I’m going to be the first children’s captain.” Good Lord.
How about we actually wait for the show and the depiction of the role before decrying it?
We could likewise wait for missiles to fly before decrying nuclear war as a bad thing.
Well that escalated.
That…… was a ridiculous reply.
Sorry, Ometiklan, that’s not how things work around here.
“Picard and Data get a well-written, well-acted, riveting coda to TNG”
Where was that? I only saw that weird “Picard”-show, that basically retconed their relationship into some weird friendship and killed of both for no real reason other than possibly glorifying suicide. So where’s this well-written coda? Sounds kinda interesting …
I don’t see Data’s exit from the Trek mythos as “glofifying suicide.” Yes, he asked to be put to sleep and that was hard for us to watch, as we loved him, but (and I’ll probably get this post blocked or even deleted for admitting such) but when my time comes and I, like Data, find my usefuleness at an impass (I have a mental illness and my have no doubt that capacity to care for myself will only diminish as time goes on), I, too, will seek a humane end to my existence so as I don’t become a burden to those who love me. I don’t see this as glorifying suicide, however; simply as the logical next step in my (and Data’s) existence).
My 2 quatloos anyhow.
Hey … it‘s not like you couldn’t make a show about that question and you’re point is certainly valid. Sophisticated even given the origin of that word 😁 … but it’s not at all what “Picard” was remotely about. He just wanted to die for no real reason. He could have easily been revived. In a human body even, which is what he always wanted. What’s a lifetime, when we’re expecting eternity?
The writers just needed him out of the way. And since he’s wasn’t a character in the Story (Spiner and Frakes were added in reshoots) there wasn’t anywhere to go.
So they did a pretty much shot for shot remake of the bicentennial man.
No one can tell me there’s anything well written about this. Especially since TNG already did the concept better. On the ethicacy of suicide in “Ethics” and even your specific Idea at least kind of in “Half a Life” … and of course “Measure of a Man” which that show pretty much completely ignored despite taking a central character from it.
Spiner (I assume you mean as Data) and Frakes were added in reshoots? Do tell more, that is interesting.
Looking at Data’s involvement as a whole, the entire season did seem like it was often just one long attempt to bolster Data’s exit in “Nemesis.”
A. Data has been dead for 20 years now. So there was no ‘suicide’, the guy was already dead. But yes he could’ve been revived but then you’re forgetting about B.
B. Brent Spiner has made it clear he didn’t want to play Data again. It’s why they killed him off in Nemesis and he said it even for this show. It sounds like he only agreed to play Data one last time for the same reason they got Nimoy to play Spock in TWOK and that was to kill him off….again. And we’re talking less than ten minutes of screen time. He had more screen time playing Altan Soong. My guess is if they could get Spiner to play Data again, then yes the character could’ve been revived just like they revived Spock in TSFS when they convinced him to come back.
I think they just wanted a better way to send Data off than what he got in Nemesis which of course most fans hated and another reason that movie was received so poorly. This was just more thoughtful. It’s still not what a lot of people wanted since I’m guessing most want him alive again, but a decent compromise if you can’t convince the actor to play him full time again.
Could Data have even been revived? I thought the show established that was not possible. Regardless, I think Data’s “death” in Picard was far superior to the one we got 20 years ago in Nemesis.
And lastly they WERE friends. Data and Picard became very close by the end of the show and much closer during the films. Think of the times Picard and Data literally tried to sacrifice themselves just for the other to live? Picard did it in First Contact and was willing to let himself get blown up to save Data from the Borg. And then Data, well, you know. ;)
But Picard has constantly put himself and even his career on the line to help Data. The first time was Measure of a Man as you mentioned. The other time was The Offspring where he could have lost his position by directly defying Starfleet. And then in Insurrection. Picard clearly cared Data, he just never expressed it on the show the way he does now because he was a very different Picard on the show that repressed everything like a Vulcan lol. But we seen three phases of Picard and how he slowly changed to what we see now. On the show where he was much more insulated from everyone, then the films where he became much more open to his crew to the happy grandpa we now see him in Picard. I think he always saw Data as a friend, he just couldn’t be open about it like now. And it’s been 20 years since Data died, so lots of reflection time there. ;)
Data wanting the snooze fest of TNG to end was the most sensible part of that show.
If Janeway ends up with kids exploring the frontier on their own, she’s ending up in a way better series and something way better than the relatively unwatchable Voyager.
Fingers crossed.
Sometimes its like you come off like a troll. We know dude. Moving on.
Don’t forget “Clues,” either, when Picard put his ship into jeopardy to figure out why Data was behaving oddly. The Picard-Data friendship is totally organic, every bit as much as Kirk and Spock.
Another great example! Completely forgot about that one. Love that episode a lot too.
Sascha, what you just wrote is entirely inaccurate.
Your trolling is lame, Temarc. We have no idea what Janeway’s role is in Prodigy. Nobody outside of the creators and network have seen a frame of the show yet.
Mulgrew is highly protective of Janeway, and likely would never agree to be part of the project if she felt that it degraded the character. That much we do know.
We heard the same thing about Nimoy and Spock, and yet he inserted himself into INTO DARKNESS. We heard the same thing about Shatner and Kirk, yet we got GENERATIONS. We’ve been to this rodeo before.
Whether or not you liked Into Darkness, it didn’t really degrade Nimoy’s character. It didn’t really do anything with Nimoy’s character. He just popped up on the viewscreen to tell Quinto’s Spock about Khan.
Look at it this way, she’s helping to bring in a new generation of young Trekkies, who really couldn’t easily watch the violent, profanity-laced, eyeball-ripping, behind-a-paywall Picard show right now, could they?
Star Trek is 50 years old. Inexplicably, new fans have come into the fold during that time without having Tiny Toons Trek to lure them in.
In case you haven’t noticed, the media landscape is different now. It’s splintered. Dad has his R-rated Trek over here. Kids have theirs over there. For whatever reason they don’t make this stuff for the whole family anymore. I don’t know, you can pound sand over it all you want. Not going to change it.
Two F-bombs over ten episodes is hardly profanity laced. Apart from the eye-ball thing, it isn’t really any more violent than any of the other Treks either.
Jesus Christ, that’s really your takeaway from this? One medium isn’t any more or less appropriate than another, though you’ve kinda given away your bias against animation.
100% guilty as charged. I think that stage and film are much more sublime. Star Trek maps onto animated comedy very, very poorly. (And note that TAS didn’t *try* to be funny.)
Have they said that Prodigy is going to be a comedy? I’m sure it will have humor, like every Trek does, but I don’t think it will be all jokes like Lower Decks.
TAS was intentionally funny many times. Clearly, you’ve not watched it.
Are you talking about First Contact, Nemesis or even Insurrection? Any of those are head and shoulders above the utter tripe that was Star Trek Picard. Awful show.
You haven’t even seen the damn show yet. Cut the fake melodrama.
trolling. locked.
Wow so she’s already recorded all her lines for first season, great news! I completely forgot UNLIKE all the other shows, this one actually has a date when it will premiere this year. This or Lower Decks will probably be the first shows that will run this year.
Super curious about this show now. So happy to see Mulgrew and Janeway back in the franchise! And like Picard and Lower Decks, I’m guessing other Voyager or 24th century characters will find a way on this show, they are just being super quiet on it right now. Even easier being animated. Just hope it’s good.
And probably the only ST shows this year… maybe Picard will be ready to start airing at the end of the year, but it depends on how much the pandemic is slowing down the shooting & post-prod. 2022 will be full ST year I’d imagine!
I think Lower Decks will make it this year too. They were already working on second season when first season started. Of course not sure how far along but I have to think if they were already starting work on it by August of last year, then it most likely will be ready by the end of this year at least. I swear you have to wonder how animated shows like The Simpsons do it year after year and pumping out roughly 20 episodes to boot.
Picard in 2021 is probably a big maybe now. Crazy to think they were originally supposed to start 6 months ago and probably was suppose to be the first show to come out in 2021. Now it will likely be the last.
Yeah think so too about LD, that’s why I said showS ;) Yeah things have been really weird…. on one hand, if Picard doesn’t have too many special effects, they can easily manage to premiere the show at the end of the year, but we all know what that can lead to (coughcopypasteshipscough).. We’ll see! 2022 will def see (Picard), DISC and SNW. And production (if that’s still going ahead) of the S31 show should commence too..
I think starting later this year, we may be getting new Trek show seasons every quarter at least for the next several years!
It’s usually a pipeline system with the new season starting and more or less overlapping with the previous as that one wraps up. But that’s The Simpsons/Family Guy/Bob’s Burgers, which are probably all guaranteed another twenty seasons now that Disney has plonked down the cash to own them.
With streaming services like Netflix/CBSAA/etc., it’s a little different. These shows need to perform straight out of the gate so sometimes there’s a gap between seasons while the powers-that-be see how the shows hit or fail. Unfortunately that also means the artistic talent can’t always wait around and must move on to other shows and may not be available when/if the show’s production resumes.
Many of these streaming shows start off with two season orders before the first episode is even seen by the public, however.
I hope this isn’t exclusive to Nickelodeon worldwide.
Vey few people get it here in Australia.
I find it so weird that we’ve seen no casting information about the rest of the ensemble.
Captain Janeway is great, but kids respond to kids.
Who are these teens? Who plays them?
When will we see some key art or a trailer?
Being a voyager fan, and voyager being my first contact show, I’m looking forward to Prodigy and the return of Capt. Janeway. Unfortunately, I have to wait til it comes on blu-ray. I do not have cable anymore. I hope that paramount plus might include live Nickelodeon so I can watch it live.
The episodes will probably be on Paramount+ eventually, although it might not be until some time after the season is finished. You probably don’t need to buy the blu-ray if you don’t want to though.
I like the idea. Family friendly animated Star Trek with aspirational stories. There is a need on several levels. Kate Mulgrew will be a draw to give it attention. So glad she is involved.
I hope she is right. But this is a promo thing so normally everything said should be take with some grains of salt. But then you consider this is a Secret Hideout production. Now one must consider that everything Mulgrew said about the show’s quality has a very high chance to be falce.
It’s really sad that things have come to that. But that’s Secret Hideout for you…
Man you are really unhappy with these Kutzman shows! Maybe Prodigy or SNW will be different since you think the others suck.
If not, hundreds of hours of classic Trek to keep you entertained. I’m doing a complete rewatch in chronological order, from the 22nd to the 32nd century. I’m currently on the third season of Enterprise and having a blast with it. Next up is Discovery again. Not sure if I want to rewatch the first two seasons again butt will suck it up I guess.
Well, my displeasure with what I’ve seen from Secret Hideout Trek is about on the same level I think of your displeasure with a certain former US President. And I feel the 5 seasons of the 3 shows they’ve had support that opinion. None of the shows have really been worth a damn. Which is weird because how hard is it to produce a mediocre show? Streaming is full of them! Maybe I’m holding the bar for Star Trek too high because I’m a fan? But I’m not going to apologize for expecting something decent from my favorite entertainment franchise. Until things change I’m just going to expect that whatever comes from SH will be crap. That has been the trend. Just like until my sports teams (well, two of them) change their front offices I think they are doomed to be crap unless they get SUPER lucky.
In their defence – and I’m loathe to give them any based on what we’ve gotten so far – no-one sets out to make a bad (even mediocre) TV show. It all gets lost in the mix when you’ve too many people who don’t have a clear vision for what the show should be. Pair that up with a weak writing room, probable exec interference, and an unfamiliarity or inability to see the franchise’s strengths and weaknesses. Just like any collaborative effort, there needs to be someone who sees where it needs to go. As ever, Nu-Trek either doesn’t have that, or it has the wrong someone in charge. Or the worst of all: both.
From where I sit, Kurtzman is and is not part of the problem. I admit, his concept that there be different genres of Trek is sound. The idea of Short Treks was a good one. But for whatever reason, maybe he was forced to by suits at CBS or maybe he just thinks highly of certain people so he keeps them around no matter what, he has far too much overlap in BTS folks from show to show. And I have heard some claim he meddles far too closely in things for someone who is overseeing the entire franchise. I honestly think we would get better results if he 1: Had ZERO overlap in staffs of each show. And 2: Trusted his individual show runners to make “their” show. The only time someone at his level should intervene is with budgets and other such studio level decisions.
I’m legitimately excited for this and I’m not entirely sure why. I think it’s just exciting that we’re breaking new ground with this. Instead of another variation on a theme (which I’ve got no problem with), it’s a different melody altogether. I’m very excited.
It’s a very sophisticated ripoff of several other franchise-based cartoons. But it has nothing that ties it to Star Trek but the title. Hooray!