‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Showrunners Ink Extended Deal With CBS Studios

The creators of Star Trek: Prodigy have secured a new deal with the studio making Star Trek’s new animated kids show.

Hagemans get multi-year deal with CBS

On Wednesday CBS Studios announced a new multi-year production agreement with the Emmy Award-winning animation writer/producers (and according to their bio “brothers and sworn blood enemies”) Kevin and Dan Hageman.

Two years ago Alex Kurtzman, the producer in charge of the Star Trek Universe, picked the duo behind Trollhunters and The Croods as executive producers and showrunners for Star Trek: Prodigy, a new animated series originally set to debut on Nickelodeon. ViacomCBS has since decided to have the show debut first on their rebranded Paramount+ streaming service.

The new deal for the Hagemans shows that CBS Studios is happy with the work they have done on Prodigy and want to keep working with the duo. CBS Studios president David Stapf said in a statement:

“Dan and Kevin are brilliant creators and master storytellers. They have a unique gift for tapping into the human spirit through a lens of compelling characters, insight and humor. They’ve done an amazing job creating Star Trek: Prodigy for a younger audience, and we can’t wait for kids and families to discover and enjoy it. We feel so fortunate that they will make their home at CBS Studios.”

First look image at Star Trek: Prodigy

In the same statement, the Hagemans are quoted saying:

“We’re overjoyed about our opportunity to work closely with David Stapf and his entire team at CBS Studios. Since Alex Kurtzman made our introduction, we have felt nothing but trust and support while collaborating on Star Trek: Prodigy. Not only are we anticipating big things in animation, but the possibilities in the live-action space have us very excited as well.”

The Hagemans follow Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan who also recently signed a long-term deal with CBS Studios. In both cases, it shows a high level of confidence in the work these creatives have done for the Star Trek franchise and could indicate both animated series will live on beyond their initial two-season orders.

Star Trek: Prodigy is about a group of alien kids who commander a seemingly abandoned Starfleet vessel, and will also feature the return of Kate Mulgrew, reprising her Star Trek: Voyager role as Kathryn Janeway. The first season will debut on Paramount+ later this year.


Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.

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I suspect that this will be a holographic version of Janeway on this abandoned Starfleet vessel. Like a training ship. Just a guess based on context clues.

Emergency Command Hologram.

I think I might actually be the first person on here to suggest this theory. This is what I wrote on the 24th April 2019 on the Trekmovie article announcing this series. This was long before season 3 of Discovery had aired or Mulgrew had been cast so I didn’t specifically say it would be Janeway but the idea is pretty much the same:

”…just a little bit of conjecture here but a lot of people believe that the Discovery crew will find themselves in a post Federation galaxy in season 3. Might it be possible that they will use this setting for the Nickelodeon series and that these “lawless” kids will learn about the values of the Federation throughout this show and grow into traditional Starfleet officers perhaps through the tutelage of the ships emergency hologram”

https://trekmovie.com/2019/04/24/breaking-cg-animated-star-trek-show-coming-to-nickelodeon/

Please give LDS a third season! Best thing from new Trek so far.

Excited to see how Prodigy lands now. Maybe it will turn into something really good if they already extended their deal like McMahan, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Every these two have done has been successful. It’s a good thing for ViacomCBS that CBS Studios has committed them on the longer term.

I don’t expect them to do less than there best with a Star Trek property. There are great signs that this will follow TAS and get a children’s series Emmy while being true to the franchise.

The Director is an award-winning animator. Author David Mack is from the sounds of it a very engaged consultant who knows canon cold and in detail. Dr Erin MacDonald has reportedly been putting in a lot of time on the science of the series.

Getting an Emmy is irrelevant.

It’s not important, but it is nice.

I agree. Even more so in today’s day and age.

It’s definitely not irrelevant. Might not matter to YOU, but it matters a great deal within the industry.

Exactly. It’s a very prestigious award.

This is a sound business move for CBS. This will bring younger fans into the franchise. It will allow family viewing. If successful, they will do merchandise and video games. It’s probably easier to make animated Trek vs live action, due to Covid restrictions. We could see Trek animated features like we do in the DCEU. As my first Grandchild will be born this year, I hope this is the first show of many that I can share with him or her.

Congratulations on the the expectation of your first grandchild.

I’ve been surprised by how much our kids loved TAS, despite the poor 2D animation, so don’t overlook it when your grandchild reaches the primary school age.

Now there’s a proud soon-to-be Grandparent! Congrats!!

Sounds like the suits at CBS liked what they’ve seen so far with season 1 that they’re going to make more seasons than just the two initially ordered.
Super excited to see a Trek aimed at kids and looking forward to sharing it with my niece in a few years.

The takeaway I got was they were going to work with them to develop other projects in addition to their work on Prodigy.

I’ll wait to see Prodigy before I pass judgement.

I agree that the overall deal with CBS is for more than just Prodigy. But it’s reasonable that what they’ve done with Prodigy so far has played a role in CBS’s decision to offer them a bigger multi-year contract. Of course, what the studio likes doesn’t necessarily match with what (groups of) fans like.

I hope it succeeds in the demographic it’s aiming for.

It would be nice to see it succeed in demographics they aren’t aiming for, too.

….I say that as a 55 year old guy who, while I was/am interested in what SW Rebels and Clone Wars has to offer in terms of content and story, I just can’t get past the type of animation to get into it. I think the same will apply here for me. I agree with you though.

You get one chance to make a first impression and these jokers blew it. Apart the title, nothing about the first look says Star Trek.

Their involvement with The Croods was limited to co-writing the sequel, The Croods: A New Age. Aside from Trollhunter, their only other producing credit is Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. I still haven’t gotten around to previewing Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. Update- Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu has dropped the Masters of Spinjitzu and is now known simply as Ninjago. It appears to be still going strong.