Ahead of the July 1 premiere of the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy TrekMovie had a chance to talk to co-creators and executive producers Dan and Kevin Hageman. We will have some more spoilery comments from the pair next week after the 20-episode drop on Netflix, but they also had some more (mildly spoilery) comments about the second season, as well as their assessment of the series getting a third.
What’s something quintessential from season 1 that carries through into season 2 and what’s something you wanted to change for season 2?
Kevin Hageman: The quintessential part was: this is a show for new people who don’t know anything about Star Trek. So we wanted to make sure we continue this idea of the greatest hits. What are those elements? Like Tribbles and Vulcans and what makes Star Trek great? So that’s something we wanted to bring back. What was new is how at the end of season 1 we had set up Gwyn going off to present-day Solum. We knew Chakotay was on future Solum. And we were like, “Oh my God, this is going to be a time travel season… and this is going to be a tricky one.” So we discovered it’s a little more serialized than season 1. Like there are more 2-parters, especially in the back half of season 2 it’s really feeling like a highly-serialized ramp-up.
Dan Hageman: Yeah, in season 1 it really felt like they were always being chased by something, either by The Diviner or Admiral Janeway. And they were always just keeping their heads above water. Season 2 is a little bit more of The Odyssey where they have a journey to make and the exploration of their journey, they’re a little bit they’re a little bit more on top of the game of what they need to do.
When we talked to Aaron Waltke last week, he said the goal was to come up with a grand unified time travel story, to make it all make sense…
Dan Hageman: It’ll never all make sense. You have a suspension of disbelief for any time travel.
But with the end of season 1, painted into a corner kind of sounds like a bad thing, but…
Dan Hageman: Oh we totally. When we realized this is going to be a time travel season, we were not excited. We’ve got to go into the future to save Chakotay and then Gwyn’s got to solve Solum in present day. We were like, “Oh god, here we go, it’s time travel time.”
Kevin Hageman Luckily we had Dr. Erin Macdonald, who’s our astrophysicist advisor. We drew it out and she worked on it and she’s like, “Yes, this can work.” We were so excited.
Some fans never got into the show in season 1, perhaps seeing it as a kid’s show. Do you feel like season 2 works differently, especially for fans, to just jump straight in? Because now it’s all about Starfleet, they are in the Alpha Quadrant, and in episode 1, bam there they are on the new Voyager.
Dan Hageman: You are not the first person we have heard that from. And I guess it does kind of work if people want to jump right in. I think you wouldn’t quite know how the characters connect to each other as well. But it definitely does feel like yeah, new students getting brought into shenanigans on the Starfleet ship. So you could start from season 2.
Kevin Hageman: I’m happy that it can work that way. But also, it’s the second half of a 40-episode saga.
Dan Hageman: I think if they watch season 2 and they love it, they are going watch season 1 and love it because it’s the same thing. It just has a slower start.
From episode 14 (CBS Studios)
A big new thing for season 2 is the release of all 20 episodes at once on Netflix. How do you feel the show works as a bingewatch, or how would you feel it is best to watch the new season?
Kevin Hageman: I personally think it’s designed to watch very quickly, all together. I think it’s really hard to watch 22 minutes and have this very highly serialized emotional story and only get a 22-minute chunk and then have to sit for a week. I think it’s going to be a more satisfying experience to be able to watch more together.
Dan Hageman: When we ran Trollhunters our room had written 52 episodes straight. It was a 52-episode order, which was a different time back then. But all that writing is to get you to finish one and want to start the next one. So, I think it’s actually easier to watch by binging them. It’s like morsels, 22 minutes. It’s easy to get through two and once you get through two, you kind of want to watch a third one.
Regarding a third season, I know you have said it’s possible. What is your level of confidence? Is this now just like any other show on Netflix awaiting a season pickup if it does well?
Kevin Hageman: I would guess more than doing well. We don’t know anything about season 3 yet. But what from what I see of Netflix when they do pickup shows for a season 3, which is very rare, it’s not about doing well, it has to do gangbusters.
Dan Hageman: Most things only get 2 seasons.
Kevin Hageman: I think it’s going to be a real challenge. And I think it has to be bigger than just the Star Trek audience watching it as much as they can. It’s about breaking into kids who are [not already fans]
Dan Hageman: But let’s also put it into perspective. Lower Decks is five seasons, but those seasons are 10 episodes. Ours is 20 episodes. We got 40 episodes. It’s a lot of content out there. So it kind of comes down to: are there large watch-throughs of the season? Where’s the appetite? Do people want more Prodigy? Obviously, Kevin and I want more Prodigy. But we’re happy with how we left things off at the end of the season 2. We feel like there’s a nice place to stop, but also a new adventure to pick up if we want to.
Kevin Hageman: Doing a show like this is not cheap, doing 20 episodes. So, my hope is we get a great-sized audience, but if it’s not big enough to warrant another season, there’s always option B. Which would be, let’s do a 90-minute animated film, the sequel which could start the film franchise.
Dee Bradley Baker, Kevin Hageman, Ben Hibon, Kate Mulgrew, Dan Hageman, Brett Gray and Rylee Alazraqui seen at Star Trek Prodigy display during at NYCC 2021 (Getty)
You see this as a streaming movie? I think [Paramount Pictures CEO] Brian Robbins once talked about a possible theatrical…
Kevin Hageman: Theatrical would be big, that would be wonderful. I just think it’s a really difficult time in entertainment right now for films.
Dan Hageman: With so much content out there, that’s why I think the streamers don’t want to clutter the landscapes.
Kevin Hageman: This is my dream. I would to keep the show going as an animated series on Netflix, keep seasons going. And then someday warrant a live-action film franchise.
Dan Hageman: But what I like is the show has a beating heart. And when the streaming wars dust settles, somebody will have Star Trek. And someone has that choice of “what do we want to continue on Star Trek?” And I feel like we have something to build off of.
Wrapping things up, what is something you want hardcore Trek fans–maybe even skeptical fans–that you want them to know about season 2 of Prodigy?
Dan Hageman: We respect Star Trek. And we want to live in Star Trek like they do. And we bring those things to the screen.
Kevin Hageman: This is canon and the next chapter in Star Trek.
From episode 10 (CBS Studios)
More to come from Dan and Kevin
Check out the All Access Star Trek podcast on Friday for the full audio of our interview with more insights into season 2 (minus a couple of spoilers). And check back on the site next week for a breakdown of why they decided to [SPOILER] in season 2.
Season 2 of Prodigy will stream on Netflix globally (excluding Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Mainland China) and season one is currently available on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe with season two coming soon. Season two has launched in France on France Televisions channels and Okoo. TrekMovie is trying to confirm details on a release of season 2 in Canada.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe
I would love a season three, but I would also be excited for a Prodigy movie continuing the story. It really all depends on us streaming the new season in July.
And if it’s as good as the people who have seen it are saying it is, that won’t be hard.
Agreed!
I have to agree, I found the 20 minute story on a weekly basis frustrating, particularly as many episodes stopped and picked up exactly a week later with a continuing story. I love the idea of a movie. That way we could appreciate the full experience in one sitting. So looking forward to bingeing Season 2 next week!
I am delighted to watch 20 episodes at my own pace. But I remember watching Season 1 and weekly episodes were a treat. Twenty minutes of Prodigy were more packed than 1 episode of Discovery.
This is the best Star Trek production ever. The best in all aspects. Will be a huge loss not to green light season 3 or jump to the big screen.
You have…Gentleman’s A standards.
Love your enthusiasm Jay! It’s just done so well. This show deserves more seasons and hopefully we’ll get it.
It’s the best post modern trek for me.
“We were like, “Oh god, here we go, it’s time travel time.”
Music to my ears! 😀
I’m hoping they go crazy with it. Like Voyager Year of Hell crazy lol.
Only four more days!
I still wish Year of Hell would have been a whole season ark.
Yeah they could’ve done some crazy things with it.
Ya I mean even if it was like 1/2 a season or a 1/3 it would have been so much more impactful
I think a lot of the recent glut of Trek should have been released with the binge model. I recently watched Season 4 of Discovery over a weekend and it really benefitted from being binged.
I think the only shows that really suit weekly releases is Strange New Worlds given its more standalone format.
I’m personally not a fan of Netflix’s system to drop everything at once, because there’s none of the speculation and discussion happening after each episode. You only talk about the season as a whole and maybe some moments in it. If you talk at all, because some people have binged it already, others are in the middle of it, others just watched the first episode. That takes so much away.
When it’s week by week, there are the recaps and reviews here and elsewhere, on YouTube etc. The “Ready Room” with behind the scenes and interviews. This all adds a lot to my personal enjoyment. (Not so much the comments here and elsewhere with all that toxicity of the Star Trek hatedom where mysagonists and racists hide behind “BuT The WRitInG iS so BAd!!!!“, but it’s a small price to pay to have a discussion with actual fans in between all the drivel …)
If people don’t want to wait week to week, they can just wait until the season is available as a whole. Problem solved, right?
Sure but you have to always worry about spoilers in this day and age. Even if you try to avoid them they still pop up on your phone after a few days or weeks. Now if you don’t care about that, fine. But I remember people being upset when Tim Russ was revealed to be on The Ready Room just a few hours after he showed in Picard last year. Now imagine waiting four months for a show that has already aired.
But I don’t disagree with you in general. Those things are a positive but we knew that was never possible once it was announced it was going to Netflix.
Agreed. I also think about the creatives who made the shows. In the end they’re happy it’s getting seen and talked about at all, but a weekly released means we’re all on relatively the same page and everyone is largely talking about the same episode at the same time, and for a longer period. You’d never get everyone talking about any of the new shows en masse the same way for 2 months or more if every episode was released all at once. The fan discussions and PR would burn brightly for a few short weeks and then die down hard, and we’d have an even longer wait between seasons. I would hate to see years of my work distilled into such a short moment in the sun.
I doubt anything is coming next
LET’S GO PRODIGY!!!
Can’t wait for this to drop. This and LDS are my favorite shows for NuTrek. They are literally tied for me so far.
I plan to binge it all in a day. And then will binge it again by the end of the month because supposedly it helps the metrics according to the internet to help get us a season 3!
this isn’t the first time they’ve mentioned a followup movie, I’m guessing they both know there won’t be a Season 3 and trying to get people used to the idea of a movie instead
I would have no issues with that! 👍
But if they knew for a fact there won’t be a season 3, Netflix could’ve just called it the final season. The fact they didn’t gives me hope.
They actually discussed the idea of a theatrical movie after the first episode aired. I think they saw huge potential in the kid’s market at the time but sadly that idea died a quick death.
But who knows if things do pick up for season 2.
I wouldn’t read too much into that, given they’ve been discussing a movie since 2019.
This: “ It’ll never all make sense. You have a suspension of disbelief for any time travel.But with the end of season 1, painted into a corner kind of sounds like a bad thing, but…
Dan Hageman: Oh we totally. When we realized this is going to be a time travel season, we were not excited.”
Agreed, 110% Combine that with this being a rehash of Voyager, just ugh.
Go back in time and reset that whole arc that it did not happen, save the show!
Says somebody who has clearly never seen an episode of Prodigy. Just because Janeway and Chakotay does not make it a rehash of Voyager.
I love everything I am reading here but I am still nervous what is going to happen with Paramount and P+
Probably in a few years all the new shows will be back on Netflix. 😉
Can’t wait for Monday!
Ditto my friend. Except for the work part haha
“We respect Star Trek. And we want to live in Star Trek like they do. And we bring those things to the screen.”
And this is why I love the show. It has the Roddenberry spirit, it feels like Star Trek, while adding something new and different.
Absolutely! 👍
Its truly a great show and gets Star Trek so well!
100% agreed!
Prodigy is pure Star Trek in every way possible. I think Roddenberry would’ve loved this show and I don’t elicit his name often.