‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Creators Say “Miscommunication” Led To Unexpected Early Release Of Season 2 In France

| March 29, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 15 comments so far

2023 was a tumultuous year for the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy; it was pulled off Paramount+ in the summer only to be revived by Netflix, where season 1 relaunched on Christmas Day. While this was happening, work on the second season was still underway, and that was completed late last year. Netflix has vowed to release season 2 this year, but has yet to set a date, which is why it was confusing when it suddenly appeared on French television a few days ago. We have been trying to get some clarity on exactly what’s happening. There has been no official comment from CBS Studios or Netflix, but a picture of what’s going on is emerging.

The French Miscommunication

While Netflix has the streaming rights to Star Trek: Prodigy, there are still a number of international broadcasters that also hold the rights to the series, including the French public television network France Télévisions. The surprise was that the French network became the first to debut the entire second season (dubbed in French) on its VOD site france.tv without any fanfare or promotion, while Netflix (even in France) has yet to announce a streaming debut.

Prodigy on France.TV

It first appeared this could have been a leak, but it turned out to be a bit more complicated. On Monday Prodigy co-creators and showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman took to Twitter/X to explain their “silence” on this, saying they were still trying to sort out the puzzle pieces.

On that same day, the French podcast Le Quadrant Pop confirmed with France TV the release was not a leak. On Thursday, the Hageman Brothers returned to Twitter with an update, confirming this; however, they also made it clear that the release in France was something that was not part of the planned rollout, saying “For a show about communication, it’s unfortunate there was some miscommunication.”

It’s important to remember that the original plan for the second season of Prodigy was for it to debut on Paramount+ in late 2023. It appears that while France Télévisions did have a deal for the series and do have the right to broadcast and make it available on their VOD site, the original plan was for this to be well after the show had its streaming debut. It’s unclear how or why these terms were not adjusted after Paramount+ removed the show and it was licensed to Netflix, which delayed the streaming debut of season 2.

It’s likely there are other old deals out there with other international broadcasters, but the above statement from the Hagemans indicates there shouldn’t be any more unexpected releases until the global release on Netflix, on a “TBD date.” When asked about a coordinated marketing campaign to promote this Netflix release, co-executive producer Aaron Waltke said that fans should “stay tuned.”

Vive la Prodigy

Fans should also stay tuned for updates on the future of Prodigy on Netflix. If the show performs well they have the option to order a third season, or more. The Hagemans, and others who work on the show, have made it clear they are holding out hope for this and are ready to get back to work. Of course, Netflix ordering more episodes depends on how well the show performs, so fans would be wise to wait for the show to arrive and watch it there (and rewatch it too) to get the streaming giant’s attention.

The Hageman Brothers do seem to have a bit of a sense of humor about this whole episode. The pinned tweet for their feed on X is from earlier this week with the simple message in French “Vive la Prodigy.”

No spoilers!

In the meantime, those who work on Prodigy are encouraging fans to try to avoid spoilers and to certainly not share any spoilers on social media. Bonnie Gordon (voice of the USS Protostar) implored fans outside of France to “avoid spoilers and wait for the official release.”

TrekMovie will continue to monitor the situation, but we will not be sharing spoilers, and anyone doing so in our comments (including links to spoilers) will be banned without warning. When the official Netflix rollout is announced we will report on that and do all the usual pre-release publicity. We will be posting our usual recap/reviews once season 2 arrives on Netflix.

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Prodigy is the only new Star Trek I have any interest in. Looking forward to season 2 on Netflix! Happy to cancel Paramount+ when they failed to follow up on Picard Season 3. Thank goodness for Prodigy!

I guess no one in Paramount speaks French.

quoi ? je ne comprends pas.

I love spoilers. Checking out the French streaming service episode descriptions, Google Translate and Voila! Yes, a lot of spoilery stuff in there, but I will renew my Netflix for a month to watch them.

“Merde.”

😄😄

Honestly, seeing that explanation about the date change does make sense, in a dumb, messed-up kind of way. I do feel like someone along the way should have been able to realize this sooner, and either address the issue or make it known beforehand.

But either way, I just want to move forward, and get news on the Netflix release before too long. Even before this, I was thinking sometime next week, either on First Contact day, or leading up to it like they’ve done with announcements in recent years. I’m so ready to see this season already.

It may be interesting to see if this incident impacts distribution in the United States by Netflix and forces a speeded up time table.

I hate to say but I’m certain these are already showing up on the less than legal sites.

Oops….
Personally, I don’t have any hang ups about spoilers, but not enough to wade through season 2 in French.

I had a look at the episode descriptions a couple of days back, and saw a lot of spoilers. Not going to share any here, but they made me incredibly excited to see the full series. Can’t wait until they release it. Haven’t been this excited for a new season of Trek since Picard season 3, which I loved.

I’m more frustrated that a show about communication hasn’t communicated when the next season will actually officially premier in the US. I’m *guessing* they’ve asked to hold it till after Disco is done but now there’s no point in not releasing it.

French is my first language (I am a french Canadian) but there is no way I will be checking out those episodes or even the titles and descriptions.

First, translations really suck. Especially if done in France. They tend to change some things, especially jokes, not because they can’t be translated (which does happen and I understand that) but just because they think they are funnier (which they are not). They also sometimes change names of the characters, even if they don’t make more sense. I think they do it less now, but in the ’80s and before, it was really bad. In Star Wars, there was Dark Vader, Yan Solo, D2-R2 and Chico (Chewbacca). In Lord of the Rings, Frodo became Frodon. In some Marvel comic books, they changed the name of a character named CannonbalI to a much more french word: Rocket (which is not a french word). I haven’t watched anything translated in about 15 years so maybe they got better, I don’t know.

Anyways, sorry about my rant, I really hate translations! Hahaha!

But even if it was in english, I wouldn’t want to get spoiled. I didn’t wait that long to watch a show I really like just to know everything in advance. And I haven’t subscribed to Netflix since the last season of Stranger Things and want to reward them for getting Prodigy. I will sub again when the show airs.

In my mind, I initially speculated, that the release dates were sent in U.S. format, and the French assumed the date positions to be in French format, especially, if the dates were single-digit. But because the entire release was on or a bit before 26 March, and the official release was planned for ‘late in the year’, then something doesn’t quite add up.

Geneviève Bujold’s Revenge!

ha!