Kate Mulgrew recently voiced Hologram and Admiral Janeway for two seasons of Star Trek: Prodigy. But the idea of the actress, who led Star Trek: Voyager for seven seasons, returning to live action has been bandied about as well. Now Mulgrew is talking more about the discussions of a Janeway show and her concerns about making it work.
Mulgrew couldn’t bear seeing Janeway disparaged
Kate Mulgrew appeared on a panel at Fan Expo San Francisco on Sunday. A fan brought up Star Trek: Picard, noting how the show was “well liked,” and asked if Mulgrew had been approached to do a similar Janeway standalone show in live action. The actress indicated there had been talks but expressed reservations:
“I think it’s a tricky business… I gave Janeway everything I had back then, everything I had. [Star Trek executive producer Alex] Kurtzman has talked to me about this, of course he has. Janeway is beloved and I don’t know… I can’t answer, frankly. It would have to be so good, and I’m not sure it has all of the elements that I would need to have… I haven’t closed the door, but I think there’s lots of other stuff. I mean, I’m trying to finish my novel. I just did this play, which reminded me of how much I love to act, that I am an actress to the core of my being.”
Mulgrew mentioned “conversations” about a Janeway show in 2022, and last summer, Mulgrew told TrekMovie the topic had just come up at dinner with Kurtzman but said a Janeway show would have to be “impeccable” for her to consider doing it. But it sounds like what she said at FanExpo could be referring to something specific—possibly even an actual series pitch—with her comment that “I’m not sure it has all the elements” she would want.
Mulgrew also returned to the fan’s mention of Star Trek: Picard as a template for a “Janeway” show. She admitted she hasn’t watched Picard, but she did seem aware of some of the fan and critical response to the series:
“I don’t know, guys. You’d all watch [a Janeway show]. You’d all support it. You’d be very good. But I think Picard got mixed reviews, frankly. I’m not sure you’re right everybody adored it. And I don’t think I could bear it if Janeway were disparaged. I don’t know. I don’t know. Sorry to be so lame about it, but it is what it is.”
Mulgrew’s comments about not being sure about a Janeway series seem similar to recent comments from her Voyager co-star Jeri Ryan, who recently revealed she turned down a pitch for a Captain Seven show that wasn’t the “Star Trek: Legacy” spinoff of Picard as envisioned by showrunner Terry Matalas (which she supports). Ryan said of this other pitch, “It just wasn’t me.”
Kate Mulgrew voiced Admiral Janeway in Star Trek: Prodigy
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Of course even though I’d LOVE to see Mulgrew reprise her role in a life-action Janeway show, I truly admire her and her convictions, and am okay if we do not. The money ain’t talking to her, the script is, and modern Trek has struggled with good scripts. That being said, if Kurtzman and company want her badly enough, they should be willing to work with her to make sure that ALL the elements that Mulgrew desires are there.
If she doesn’t want to fight the Borg or go to the 32nd century or travel via a mushroom drive or just be another “badass” female with a phaser rifle and a girlfriend then there is no room for her in “Nu-Trek”. Maybe that money will bring Patrick Stewart back so he can ruin his Star Trek legacy some more (if that is even possible)
‘picard’ season 3 been the most acclaimed recent ST show outside of SWN and LDs.
Wasn’t it reported that Stewart agreed to do the Season 3 storyline after seeing the fan response to Season 1’s “Nepenthe”? Before that, he was firmly against “Picard” being “TNG 2.0”, so we got the “Old Man Picard” Season 1 and the eight-of-ten episodes of Picard dealing with Mommy Issues of Season 2, or “Los Angeles Trek”. Mulgrew is not dumb, and certainly wouldn’t want a Janeway show to be poorly-written like Picard Season 1 and 2. I think she’d be fine with it if it were Voyager 2.0 like Picard Season 3.
I was not a fan of Picard by any means but I did like Prodigy so I suppose it would be all about who the show runners for a hypothetical Janeway show would be.
Janeway DID have that “badass female with a phaser rifle” moment in Voyager vs. Those Macroviruses.
The issue I think she has with a Janeway “Picard-style” legacy series is who would run it & what the story would be.
She agreed to do Prodigy because it was done by people who were doing the series the way THEY WANTED it to be done, not by the way that Kurtzman probably wanted it to be done.
Struggle implies they are trying. I don’t believe they are even doing that. The writers of “Nu-Trek” have failed- period
This website’s comment section is now 99% just people complaining and raging about “Nu Trek.” A cesspool of 14 year old grievances. Lovely.
Or…it’s a place where people desperately want Star Trek to be good again. Many of us enjoyed Picard Season 3, but fell that the rest of it has been, well, Star Wars lite.
It’s a matter of what exactly you constitute as “good.”
I just want something that people don’t have to clutch pearls with when it comes to the writing of Star Trek.
It’s ironic that you claim the rest of “Nu Trek” is like Star Wars when Picard S3 was more like Star Wars than anything. The Borg Queen cackling like Palpatine with her evil music while the Enterprise flies through a Borg cube like Lando Calrissian.
Yeah, it’s pretty depressing. Especially considering how successful this new era of Trek shows is. There are probably tons of new fans. They look at these comments of grumpy old men and just go elsewhere …
Hopefully to rediscover all the proper Star Trek made between 1964-2005.
Dude, everyone gets it, you’re not a fan of NuTrek. But it feels like you’re just spamming this board just to put it down.
Other people like you feel the same way but even they are trying to have a balanced conversation of their likes and dislikes of it. You’re just basically doing the same thing you do in every comments section.
It’s just one loser complaining about how “NuTrek” is a betrayal of something or other. I wouldn’t pay them much mind.
I’m certainly not going to tell others how to feel but I personally liked Picard for what it was- a story set in the universe of Star Trek. Thinking about the first two seasons as a separate thing rather than a continuation of the previous story really helps and the final season is obviously boosted by the nostalgia.
I do understand some of the criticism and they do need to be careful. Many thought the same about Discovery and it took SNW to claw them back. Legacy would no doubt be amazing based on character performances alone but to be frank I think we need another DS9 type show, a series grounded in a location for the most part to compliment SNW. Academy could be it but not sure.
As someone who is more on the positive side of NuTrek and basically loves LDS, SNW, Prodigy and Picard season 3, I actually do see the glass as half full. I thought Discovery was mostly awful but I actually enjoyed the last season as well. But I know on this board it does seem to be very split over people who like the direction of the new shows versus those who don’t. Yeah many felt, including me, DIS and PIC didn’t start off great but you could’ve said the same about all the classic shows, from TNG-ENT. They ALL had their critics early on too but, IMO, all got amazingly better as they went. And now ironically all those are the shows the NuTrek haters point to as ‘real’ Star Trek today. But as I constantly point out, that wasn’t the case with all of those at the time either. But whatever.
So I’m not as cynical about it as others, although I definitely am honest when I think something sucks and yeah I definitely felt that with DIS and PIC the most. They pulled it out with Picard in the end at least. DIS still ended pretty divisively but I felt more people liked it than didn’t at least. And I feel in time more people will come around to it as it ages, although I may be dead before that happens lol.
But I think SNW overall is the Trek people wanted again from the start, even if they don’t like it’s another prequel. But it’s doing things more right than wrong IMO and I am just as critical of that show at times as well. But I think for most fans, it’s amazing comfort food just like Picard season 3 felt. We just have to be honest, nostalgia and legacy characters sells. So it shouldn’t be a shock to no one they are considering a Janeway show. That’s why the whole Legacy thing is a big head scratcher. They know it’s what fans want and it could get the exact same response as Picard season 3 and SNW does now. People can’t keep pretending they don’t want to make a show for old fans when every idea we are hearing for another 25th show are all geared to old fans with the comedy show, a Seven show and now Janeway.
But there are probably a lot of factors involved that we are not aware of. Personally if it was up to me, I would love something completely different, more grounded as you propose and with completely new characters, ie, another DS9 type show. NOT DS9, but something in that direction, something not Star ship based and you can’t throw Kirk or Riker on every few episodes. But it doesn’t sound like anyone is open to that right now.
I know there are several issues that people have with SNW aside from the fact that it’s a prequel.
The most glaring issue I see people have with it is that it is spun off of Discovery Season 2, meaning that stuff like the way the Enterprise looks, Spock having a sister, the time crystals, the Klingon War, etc. are all reminders of the connection from Discovery.
Another issue I see people have is the way that they write the dialog with it being apparently too “21st century” compared to the way all of the old series handled the dialog.
Personally, I think people should just let other people enjoy what they want and ignore what it is that they don’t.
I definitely agree. But personally I don’t have an issue with the first one at all and I’m not the biggest Discovery fan either. But this show only exists due to Discovery and since it obviously exists in the same universe as everything else, of course it will be acknowledged. But yeah I’ve seen people here complain about it. That said, all the things you mentioned were basically referenced in the first season. Second season hardly any of it was mentioned at all besides the Klingon war and that just happened a few years ago so there are still remaining issues over it.
The second one I definitely have more of an issue and the contemporary way they talk does take me out of the show at times. But that’s not a SNW issue alone obviously and all the new shows do it unfortunately. But I feel Picard season 3 did it the least and it really felt closer to the older shows and another reason why I liked that season. But there were probably a few instances of it too.
I really liked Pidard seasons 1 and 2 too. I enjoyed the characters and the story.
I’ve enjoyed the plots and action of Discovry too, but I just have not been able to connect with most of the characters and Burnham just doesn’t work as a captain for me. I really like the actress, but the whole path of that character, from someone who blatantly goes her own way against orders and fails to make the hard choices when necessary and just how emotional she is, it just doesn’t work for me.
I haven’t seen Strange New Worlds yet, or the last season of Discovery or season 3 of Picard. I hope I like them all.
I understand her hesitation, because of the reception of Picard (as a whole). That would concern me too. Frankly I don’t understand how they fucked up the things they fucked up (mostly behind the scenes during season 2). I loved the show but I do feel (most of) the creators were too careless with what they had and the opportunity they had with it. Season 3 was great, but that should’ve been season 1.
Yeah season 3 should’ve been season 1 for sure. And it probably would’ve been if Patrick Stewart wasn’t so adamant about not doing a TNG revival even though that’s what everyone wanted. And it’s ironic now, because it sounds like he wants more of that today, but probably because of the amazing reaction it got by fans and he liked working with his friends again.
But I was one of the people completely onboard with the first two seasons as well. I didn’t object to a single thing because I was just happy to finally get a post-Nemesis show. That was more important to me than if Worf or Data would show up. But I think season 1 just had too many cooks in the kitchen and it was clear they didn’t really know where it was going until after they started shooting it. Why Hollywood constantly does this I will never understand since it happens a lot, but it probably is due to money.
Season 2 was just bad. After the first two episodes it just cratered. I think Goldsman just didn’t care all that much and was probably too distracted with getting SNW going. Yeah you can also blame it on Covid too but the story telling was horrific so you can’t blame it all on that. And the irony was Goldsman bragged due to Covid, they had time to finish all the scripts before they started shooting this time, but clearly didn’t help.
Season 3 really got the response most of us were hoping the first two seasons would. Even if others didn’t like it, it gave us a season of Trek most felt has been missing since the 90s (although I personally feel SNW also gives us that as well).
I think I read that Paramount interfered with S2 of Picard because, once again, they thought it was too “Star Trek”. It seems like they just want to slap the name on things that aren’t really Star Trek hoping to get those mythical new fans that won’t stick around if the show isn’t like everything else already being made.
Yeah that’s true. And I actually heard that in a private chat with a entertainment reporter on Reddit before season 3 started. They said that season 2 was supposed to be wildly different but a producer put the brakes on it and they did have to come up with something else on the fly. But it’s no telling if it would’ve been good. And when the original premise came out, it sounded much more interesting than what we got in season 2 but I still don’t know how much better it would’ve been. But I have to believe better regardless.
IIRC Matalas was so busy with 3 he couldn’t focus on 2 and everything changed.
As far as I understood it, Matalas had to give up the daily showrunning duties halfway through filming of season 2 to focus on preparing season 3.
But if you check IMDB season 2 and season 3 had basically the same team of writers, so the people who developed the story and wrote the scripts for season 2 also developed and wrote season 3.
I can only imagine that season 2 was scaled back a lot from whatever plans they had originally to make it work under strict COVID regulations. The situation had improved by the time they got to filming season 3.
Yeah pretty much and it was always planned that way from the start. Once Paramount decided to shoot both seasons back to back Matalas basically ran the third season by himself. His only job in season 2 was to help get it off the ground.
And he said in an interview season 2 ran over budget due to the Covid issues and season 3 actually lost some of its budget due to season 2. So both were affected. As much flack this show has gotten, I will admit obviously some of it was out of their control and trying to do two seasons back to back in the middle of a pandemic didn’t help either.
What’s funny about this is I think an ambitious writer could make a really great Janeway show that was akin to Netflix’s The Diplomat, which is not like Star Trek, but, one could imagine a show set in the Trek universe that vaguely resembled it/had its rhythms.
Honestly S2 of PIC made no sense to me story wise. Why did Picard even need to go back in time? Everything happened the way it was supposed to pretty much without him. One minute Q has powers, the next he loses them, the next he has them again. No explanation.
I think the story was to remind Picard to try to figure out the situation rather than just choose to blow up the ship. Like what was it that the unique looking Borg Queen wanted?
Picard season 2 was a mess of epic proportions. I loved having Q back and his farewell speech he had with Picard at the end was great, but as you said his presence was just confusing. And I still can’t figure out why he was trying to stop Picard’s ancestor from going to Europa or how any of that fit in to Picard’s trauma with his mother’s suicide? And then it seem like he was conspiring with Soong to stop her but at the same time was helping Kora(?) to expose him for his illegal cloning experiments. Again, why?
I don’t think there is a season of Trek that had so much wrong in it just based on how it was plotted out alone. It just didn’t make a lot of sense.
If she is worried about Janeway’s legacy then she absolutely should not return to a live action “Nu-Trek” show because all they will do is ruin the character. Just like they did with Picard. Patrick Stewart should not have returned in that pathetic show. I am glad Mulgrew gets how bad live action Trek is. She must be a troll like me. Or are we both people who lament how Star Trek has been ruined?
‘picard’ s3 much admired and fans eager to follow it up with ‘legacy’
We get it. You don’t like the new crop of Star Trek shows. There is no need to repeat this ad nauseam.
I am hoping more Trek veterans speak out on how abysmal the modern shows are. Shatner has spoken out likely as much as he can be bothered to (why does he care it only makes his show & movies look even better) Mulgrew is the closest I have seen someone come to calling “Nu-Trek” out. Good on her
You have nothing new or interesting to say.
seriously, only parts of Disc, ‘picard’ have let the side down while the rest of the recent shows have been much admired.
Yes Yes Yes!!!
Please make it happen. It sounds like Mulgrew wants to do it but have concerns, especially after the mixed reactions to Picard. Obviously no one can blame her to put back on the uniform 25 years later and it ends up sucking. She has a very mature attitude about it.
But with her and Kurtzman talking about her returning to live action is obviously a great sign. He got her to do Prodigy (which unlike Picard did get a great with reception) but it’s very different be on a set and exchanging fire with Klingons again. And if Prodigy isn’t returning for another season then it opens up for her to return in live action. Robert Picardo is doing both with Prodigy and SFA but it’s easier when there is a time difference of 800 years lol.
Obviously it may not happen but it’s at least a great sign we will ultimately get another 25th century show and that ISN’T a comedy; especially after hearing they did try to get Jeri Ryan back for another show as the article said. And I still have faith Legacy could eventually happen since they want Ryan back and what she’s holding out for.
Trek feels to be more in peril these days but it’s proof they are still trying to figure out the next steps after SNW and SFA. I am open to anything, regardless if it involves legacy characters or not but I expect whatever is next will involve a legacy character anyway if the last three shows are any indications.
The only reason I care about SFA is because Robert Picardo is coming back and gives me hope they will do right by the character and not ruin him which NuTrek does a lot. But after seeing how they handled the characters in Podigy and Picard season 3, it gives me hope they can do the same for The Doctor in SFA.
But I agree with you, I’m not much of a fan of NuTrek, but I will give everything a chance if it interests me enough. I’m still torn if I will watch the Space Nazi Section 31 movie, but if the reviews are at least decent, I will watch it.
But many of us who has been disappointed with NuTrek wants to be excited again. The few times they do get it right, I am completely onboard. But Mulgrew probably sees and hears the same issues from fans at conventions who think NuTrek has been mostly bad since 2009 and only a shadow of what it once was. Many want her back, but not if we are going to get more things like Picard and Discovery. IF that’s the case, then please don’t bother.
I still want a show like Legacy. If we don’t get it, I’m OK with that as well. And if Matalas is not behind it, then less so. I have all my physical media and I can just be happy watching TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, Picard season 3 and Prodigy along with the first ten movies. That’s enough to last me a life time frankly.
But I would hope we get another 25th century show in time. I just fear it will be bad. I wish I had your positivity and optimism and so glad there are fans like you that still have it, even for these new shows.
All fair! I know your position on the modern era and while I disagree with some of it, I don’t remotely have an issue with your position on any of it either. And frankly it’s what I’ve heard on this board and multiple places for the past 15 years now lol.
Yeah I am more positive on it for sure, but I have been let down quite a bit as well although the last few years have been great IMO. If I can even like a season of Discovery, they are doing something right lol.
In all seriousness, while I think Star Trek will endure for many more years, I do feel it’s kind of at an impasse right now. Say what you will about Kurtzman, he is trying to open the franchise for new audiences and demographics, I just don’t know if it’s working all that well. I always go back to 2022 when people kept saying Paramount want shows that will grow the market and at the time people were using shows like Discovery and Prodigy as proof of that only for those shows to be cancelled less than a year later. Discovery had a decent run, I don’t think anyone can say otherwise, but if it was really bringing in new people as others were suggesting, it would’ve stayed for a few more seasons. And Prodigy sadly died after one season in.
Obviously shows like LDS and SNW are popular, but I still think both of these shows are mostly just watched by all the same old fans. And of course LDS is done after this season (but hopefully will come back in some form). I think SNW will make it to five seasons but I don’t think it will go beyond that either. Maybe I will be proven wrong but I doubt it. I think they all have a lower ceiling because of the high costs of making them and unless they are hitting huge views it’s probably hard to keep them that long. A show making it to the top ten every few weeks doesn’t mean it’s the next TNG; just that enough people are at least watching it. But Halo had higher views than all the Trek shows, higher even than Picard and SNW and it was gone after two seasons, apparently just due to high costs and Paramount+ financial woes.
At the moment SFA is the new big thing and while it does sound like it’s made for newer fans, once they included the Doctor basically told me they knew if old fans are not onboard with it, it’s likely not going to last long. It doesn’t mean old fans wouldn’t watch it, but he’s the incentive to make sure that people like you give it a chance. I mean you literally just said that in your opening sentence lol. That tells me everything and the state of Trek today.
Again, maybe we will never see a Janeway show, but the very fact that’s obviously being considered tells you no matter what people want to believe, this franchise lives and dies by the old fans. They have been trying things to get younger people interested in it, but as Prodigy sadly showed, clearly nothing is working on a massive level. You’re not bringing back 60 and 70 year old actors to play roles they did 20+ years ago if you had a fanbase of twenty and thirty somethings.
Star Trek needs to grow beyond us, but sadly it feels more niche today than it did 30 years ago. The Kelvin movies were meant to change that fifteen years ago and now it almost feels like they never existed. No one talks about them but the same people whose been talking about Trek since the 70s, 80s and 90s. It’s so weird where Trek is today.
Haha, I did say that. But to be clear I wouldn’t really decide to give it a chance or not until I saw a trailer and seen some of the early reviews. But the cast so far is great even without Picardo. I would probably watch the first few episodes no matter what. But because I really hate Discovery and don’t care about that setting at all, I have little interest in a show that spin off from it. And Tilly is very annoying. At least she’s not the lead of the show as many assumed she would be. Nothing against the actress, she tries hard and seems very sweet, but being part of NuTrek, it’s just more adult character sounding and acting like teenagers unfortunately. And I don’t remotely believe someone born 900 years ago could teach students anything.
As far as your other points, I can’t disagree too much. The problem isn’t just trying to attract young people, but you have to convince them if they are willing to pay for it and that is Trek’s biggest hurdle today. Everything is behind a pay wall and unless you are already a fan of it, most won’t give it a chance. And if you are younger, even less so. They have to rely on their parents who were fans themselves to try it and without that incentive and the ridiculous amount of content that is out there, especially for younger people, Trek just doesn’t register.
No one cares about SNW, Discovery, Prodigy and so on if they never watched Trek before. It’s all the same thing to most younger people. I don’t buy Discovery brought many new fans either because no one my daughter’s age, who is in her 30s and grew up a fan herself has any friends who has ever watched these shows. I don’t think most people that age have the slightest clue what Discovery is unless they were Trek fans. But ask them about Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter and etc and there are many of those out there because they grew up with those like she did as well. Star Trek doesn’t even exist for most people that age today and because like I said it’s behind a pay wall. And as you mentioned, if Discovery was doing that, they wouldn’t have cancelled it so unceremoniously. It was probably losing a lot of viewers by it’s fourth season so it was cut.
The reboot movies did better but not enough to sustain them because it was just more Star Wars/Marvel/Transformers just with the name Star Trek as the title. But most moved on when they can just watch those instead.
Star Trek is just too cerebral for most younger people today unfortunately. When I was a child when TOS was around, I adored it, but even then I knew tons of kids who shunned it. So it’s never been something for the masses like a comic book show or movie. And when they try and turn it into something else like a comic book movie, they just lose old fans like me. SFA may be great but if it tries to appeal to younger people in a dumb down way most NuTrek does, it won’t last that long either.
Yeah can’t really disagree with this too much either. Yeah the biggest problem isn’t just Star Trek itself, but how it’s being distributed. It’s not on a platform, at least in America, that gives it a wider berth of people who never watched it to find it.
That is the biggest curse at the moment although ironically we only have new Star Trek today because how much the classic shows got a second life once they went to places like Netflix and Amazon. People of ALL ages were finding these shows for the first time and watching them. TOS, TNG, VOY etc all found new fans because at that time streaming was limited to just two or three services and everyone basically had Netflix. It sounds like Voyager got the biggest lift of them all and does seem like the show that brings in most of the newest fans…or did. That’s why it’s not a shock all these Voyager characters are constantly showing up now.
But it sounds like they all benefited because It was easier to find Star Trek because the competition was lighter and everyone had basically the same services. And Star Trek was on basically all of them.
Now everything feels so fragmented with so many of these services now and Trek is basically exclusive to a service that is barely hanging on. And I think it’s a great service but it’s not Disney+ either.
So it’s harder to lure new fans in general. But even harder to lure anyone under 40 frankly unless they get a real dose of it. That’s exactly why they are offering up Picard, Pike, Seven and Janeway shows because they know the people OVER 40 will eat these shows up and will pay whatever Paramount+ is to watch them. You’re talking to a guy who kept All Access for three years straight without cancelling once just so I can have access to Discovery lol.
Most people who are NOT huge fans will ever have that type of commitment to these shows and exactly why they kowtow to people like us. But as said, being behind a pay wall just makes that harder to attract younger fans and there is no lack of content out there for people these days in every major IP; especially for genre content. And more and more comes every month. There is now a Dune and Penguin TV show. There is just too much out there and older franchise like Star Trek gets left behind in terms of the newer generations.
But happy you were willing to give SFA a chance either way. Again, I get it, but it still goes to the ultimate problem when you’re trying your damnest to bring in one audience while trying to appease your main base. I still think Legacy is just the better idea of the two BUT I am actually glad this is the show they making next because even if it fails, it’s still better to try new things for new audiences. Hopefully it will surprise everyone while bringing the new set of fans they hope but yeah I have major doubts of the latter for all the reasons stated.
Transformers as a film franchise is in dire straits. Every single except film but Bumblebee since The Last Knight was a flop so Hasbro called it quits and won’t fund them anymore. Paramount is on their own. Seriously i’m not making this up and Bumblebee only made money due to a reduced budget. Rise of the Beasts going back to the Bayformers style didn’t work. And even Transformers one failed because on the 40th anniversary instead of making a G1 movie with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker they brought on Hemsworth and Johansson. In what basically was stunt casting even if the movie was decent nobody saw it because of that awful mcu meets Pixar trailer.
Lucasfilm needs a hit they haven’t had one in so long, Dial of Destiny and Solo both lost tons of money. and they can’t get a script for the Rey Skywalker movie together. The only positives I can see is Favreau and Gilroy who have finished filming their shows and movies. Maybe even you can give credit for Skeleton Crew being something new and fresh for families. Star Wars was a mighty film franchise that can’t even cut it on streaming, Acolyte was cancelled just not erased like Willow from existence on the Disney plus service.
For me personally Star Wars is played out its nearly 50 years old. Star Wars is the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. Star Trek can always reinvent itself. Star Trek is an ideal and idea. Something to strive for in reality, a better future for mankind, a hope. SW is in an imagined past and is a fairy tale.
Other than Andor Star Wars has nothing new to say or teach. You can only do rebels vs empire, and jedi vs sith so many times. The very story of good vs evil is about repetition, but its beyond butter scraped over too much bread at this point, it was dead as doornail and dry as a concept after 25 years of modern EU. Only sometime something like a Kotor would do something new with it, heck maybe even Last Jedi in the Disney era as hated as it was something different.
To put it another way Star Wars is surviving on near faded memories of greatness and nostalgia. Its lifeline is nostalgia and callbacks, its ceased to have the purpose of a story driven and alive narrative. Even if the OT was largely a toy commercial as kids we dreamed of being Luke Skywalker. Or going on adventures with Chewie and Han and owning a droid like Artoo. Kissing the girl like Leia. It was all kids stuff. A story of adolescence and growing up.
‘rise/skywalker’ did a billion pre covid.
but it not a problem that the next SW trilogy or film takes it time to appear as there have been gaps in-between films from the 80s to 90s and then from the 00s to ‘force awakens’ in 2015.
and next up is the ‘mandolorian/grogu’ film out soon.
True, but the SW films have been in the same bizarre development hell as the Trek films. They have announced over 7 different films that ended up being cancelled. That’s even more than Star Trek’s useless announcements. Everyone from Ryan Johnson to Taika Waitiki to even Kevin Feige had a movie happening only for them to go nowhere.
They currently have 3 new films coming with the Mandalorian the first one in five years to actually get made. And then the James Mangold one but that’s probably the last one to get made. But the Rey movie has once again stalled (that was literally supposed to start shooting early this year and pushed back to next year to now being off the schedule completely for now). And now apparently Simon Kinberg is writing a new trilogy altogether while he’s also in charge of getting the next Trek movie off the ground (you can not make this up lol). And it sounds like he confirmed all this himself a few weeks back.
But all that said, even though SW has had a lot of bad speed bumps as Star Trek has had, I still think that franchise can still make a billion dollar film even with all the current problems. It only takes one popular movie to get it back to that level just like Deadpool and Wolverine did for Marvel. It may even happen with the Mandalorian movie but I don’t think anyone will know until they see the reception fo it. But sadly Star Trek doesn’t have that clout at all no matter what they do and sadly probably never will.
there was a 16 year gap between the OT and the prequels and then 10 years on before ‘force awakens’ was released.
each gap was filled with SW related tv shows in the 80s and then ‘clone wars’ after the prequels.
now we have SW on D+ as they develop new films, the first of which ‘mandolorian/grogu’ is in post production and waiting for release.
That has nothing to do with what is happening today. There were no movies planned between those periods because each time Lucas just felt the main stories were done and wanted to take a break. After the prequels, he literally said there would be no more films until he changed his mind years later and started to develop episode 7.
Disney on the other hand literally said they had planned to put a new movie in theaters every year and probably until the sun imploded. The plan WASN’T to take breaks and in fact was making standalone movies inbetween while trilogy movies were running like what we got with Rogue One and Solo.
But that plan derailed fast after Solo bombed and fans were disappointed with the sequel trilogy.
But just like Star Trek, they were still developing multiple films before they canceled them because there is a lot of disorganization and doubt running through both companies of where to take the franchise next on the big screen. Apples and oranges.
and ‘skeleton crew’ seems have found favour with SW fans right now.
It is truly amazing how much both Transforners and Star Wars have fallen in the last few years. Transformers easily had the steepest decline because as you said, every movie beginning with The Last Knight has only made less money than the previous one. The first four films were the opposite and made more than the previous one with both 3 and 4 making over a billion dollars.
And believe it or not, I grew up a huge Transformers fan. I think most pre-teen boys in the 80s were a fan to some degree. But I was actually just as big of a TF fan as I was a Trek fan back then. I watched the original show religiously. I owned over 40 Transformer toys and had posters on my walls. I dressed up as Optimus Prime twice for Halloween lol. But I grew out of it by early high school since that was always considered a kid franchise. But when the first Michael Bay movie came out, it brought it all back for me. Nostalgia had kicked in hard and I loved the first movie. I even owned it for awhile.
But yeah, they just got worse and worse although I did watch all the Bay films and Bumblebee in theaters (and that one was pretty good). But didn’t bother with the last two and everyone says Transformers One is the best of them all. But sadly people have stopped caring including me. But I plan to watch it now that it’s on Paramount+. Just have to make time for it but it is the first true bomb of that series and it didn’t even cost that much to make. Now there is talk the next live action movie won’t get made at all since Hasbro has pulled out of financing them. They will probably figure something out but it’s obvious that franchise best days are now behind it.
As for Star Wars, that has been talked to death at this point and yeah fans of that franchise have become very cynical to the point of outright anger lol. Again, just like TFs, of course I considered myself just as much of a big fan growing up but like many didn’t like the prequels much and just kind of moved on when those were done. When Disney bought it, there was a lot of fanfare and excitement obviously. But kind of like what happened with the Kelvin movies and reviving Star Trek, the movie franchise went off the rails pretty quickly. Of course they were still making billion dollar films, but it was obvious they were declining in terms of box office and Solo was the first real bomb.
The shows have been up and down to say the least. I have watched all of them and so far really only like two of them. I did watch Skeleton Crew and yeah it’s pretty good so far. But, unfortunately, I’m still skeptical because nearly every SW show has started off strong only to end badly. But so far so good at least.
It is amazing how Star Wars and Star Trek are on a parallel track from both being revived to big fanfare (and by JJ Abrams) after fans thought they both ended in kind of a whimper (and even in the same year 2005). But now both are having very mixed reviews by fans of the new output and both film franchises have both stalled with one failed announcement after another (although the Mandalorian movie actually got made).
End of the day none of these franchises are going anywhere, but cynically I do wonder if any of them will ever reach the height of their fandom again? And I say this as a fan of all three.
SW on film and tv is in a better state than the TF franchise.
or ST on film.
Yeah, but not by much. They all currently have an uphill battle to climb because the perception are the products they have been putting out just haven’t been all that good. Of course with Transformers they never cared as much about that perception because people were going in droves regardless. The Transformers movies are some of the lowest rated movies out there but they still brought Michael Bay back five times because they were making gobs of money with him.
Just more proof ultimately studios don’t really care about the quality of movies until that lack of quality affects box office. I’m sure they would’ve happily got Bay to make Star Trek movies if he was interested in the hope they would’ve made the crazy money all his TFs movies did. I mean ultimately that was the box office they wanted the Kelvin movies to have but never got remotely close to those.
But the Star Trek movies are definitely the lowest on the totem pole between all three franchises for sure and exactly why it has gone the longest without a movie between all of them.
Ditto about PIcardo. Otherwise I have zero interest in anything in the 32nd century.
It would be interesting to see her return to the Delta Quadrant in live action (only not be stuck there this time). Maybe visit Neelix. See just how advanced that fast spinnng planet is now. They must be like Gods at this point. What happened with the Kazon? Stuff like that.
We got a taste of that in Prodigy with her returning somewhat to the Delta Quadrant, as she was investigating stuff in Season 1 & Season 2 there.
I can’t blame her for being hesitant after what happened with Picard.
The people behind Nu-Trek just don’t seem to understand the legacy characters or how to write for them. They got Seven wrong in S1 of Picard, and I fear they would ruin Janeway too.
Bring back writers from the Berman era of Trek or get writers who can prove they understand who these characters are and not what the new writers think they should be.
They def got Seven wrong. But I can’t really blame them for Picard because that was really Stewart’s idea.
but she ended up captain of the enterprise so worked out in the end.
Having Mulgrew back as Janeway would be an amazing thing to happen. I have said this in the past, but I remember speaking to her in 2013 and I asked her the question I’m sure she gets asked at every convention and would she be willing to come back as Janeway. She gave me such an infectious smile and said if the planets lined up again and she gets that phone call she would certainly consider it. I love that she would come back but only on her terms. I respect her so much for that even if that means she will never return.
As someone who thinks NuTrek has been mostly terrible, especially with Discovery, I can’t blame her for questioning a return. I thought Prodigy was amazing however, a lot of it due to her presence, but just great story telling. So it proves they can still make great Star Trek like the golden era but most of it has been fleeting in my eyes. Picard season 3 was great, but who knows if they can do that again without Matalas?
I adore Mulgrew so much and I definitely want to see her back, but only if they can create a great project to return in. The people who makes things like Discovery, Picard, SNW and the ridiculous Section 31 movie I’m not sure we will get a strong Janeway show as much as people want it.
Yeah I respect Mulgrew’s view as well. She clearly would consider coming back but she only wants to do it if it leads to something great. That’s what you want to hear from every actor who considers a project frankly. It’s funny how some fans have this view every old Star Trek actor will take anything just to do more Star Trek again, but that’s not the case for probably most of them.
I mean sure, it’s always great to do something that made you rich and famous in the first place and especially if you haven’t been in anything on that level in a long time. But listening to a lot of the Star Trek podcasts like Delta Flyers and The Shuttle Podcast with actors from the various shows, most say the same thing, if asked they would consider it, but no one seems to be begging to do it again probably because they remembered how grueling it was. And especially if you were one of the characters who had to do all the make up like Worf and Quark. Yeah, most have come back, but for mostly cameos or speaking roles on the animated shows.
It’s a very different thing if you’re going to do a full on show and you’re standing on a bridge again for 9 months out of the year. That’s why Terry Matalas was smart and very strategic for season 3 and giving all the TNG actors input into their characters. It gave them a proactive reason to come back and not just for more money. They have been living with these characters for over 30 years, so it just makes sense they are part of the process beyond just telling them where to stand and what line to say. Obviously Stewart wouldn’t have come back unless he had some creative input, for better or for worse. I don’t think that’s what Mulgrew is saying, only that whatever they do come up with has to be something special.
So I agree, if these characters return, on a full time basis, then they have to make it worth their time. It’s obvious Jeri Ryan wants to do more Star Trek but she still turned down potentially her own show because it didn’t sound worth it to her. I would watch whatever she did, but I can’t blame her if it’s not something that interests her. Most of these people don’t need the money anymore and can just do smaller roles and live very comfortably.
Yes I so agree with this. I have seen many actors at the conventions and they all seem to have loved working on Star Trek, even if they weren’t always happy with some of the stories or character directions. Most know once you are a part of this franchise, it boxes you from doing other roles. I remember something Dominic Keating said once at a convention and that while Enterprise only lasted four seasons and a lot of people hated the show at the time, it still changed his life completely, made him rich and he gets to travel the world just interacting with fans who loves him and get to spend time with his former coworkers for an obscene amount of money lol.
I think most are happy with their time on the show but few seem like they want to go back to it full time. Scott Bakula has always said he would love to play Archer again but he’s not waiting by the phone either. And I doubt he would ever do another show full time, but maybe appear in a movie or episode. I think most actors have a mature view but they are also actors, they know how hard it is just to get any roles and under no delusions they can rely on anything for a very long time. Star Trek is one of the few franchises that actors can return to for literally decades but it doesn’t mean they all want to keep doing it either.
And I don’t blame Ryan for turning down a starring role. I really admire her for wanting to do Legacy even knowing it may not happen. She has the money to do whatever she wants. She even said once she never thought she would play Seven of Nine again until she got a phone call one day. She knows how popular that character still is but I think if she never plays her again, she will just go on doing other things as she has for the last two decades. Playing Seven is a bonus for her, especially at this time of her life, but not a necessity either. So I’m happy they are sticking to their guns even if that means we don’t get more Seven or Janeway.
If there is any former character I want to see back, it’s definitely Archer. But I also agree, I don’t think Bakula wants to do a Star Trek: Archer or anything like that. He probably just happy to appear in something and see a continuation of the character, but not something that goes for five seasons or anything. Maybe I’m wrong, but he seems like he would be just as hesitant as Mulgrew is at the moment.
And yeah, a lot of these actors haven’t played these characters for literally decades now. I think most assumed once the show was over, that was it. Sure, maybe possibly have a cameo in something down the line, but I highly doubt any of them thought they would be returning to these characters again full time, especially once the Kelvin movies became a thing, for a few years at least.
Trek has had a very strange resurgence since 2009 to say the least. It went from the Prime universe being completely sidelined and many people thought we would never see it again and if we did it will probably never be in any time periods of the former shows. Most of us assumed any show that returns in it would be 50-100 years post Voyager and just start anew like TNG did. But then we got Discovery and then Picard and then Lower Decks and then SNW and so on. Suddenly it became clear these shows were going to rely on a lot of nostalgia bait and bringing in legacy characters on a level we have never seen. I’m pretty convinced if the TOS actors were 20-30 years younger and more were still around they would’ve made a post-TUC show and eventually give one of them a role in something as well.
But yeah, it doesn’t mean they all want to come back full time either. Most of them are in their 60s and 70s now and some have made other producing/directing careers like Frakes, McNeill and Dawson have. It’s great to at least see Frakes and McNeill come back in their former roles. They tried to get McNeill to do Picard in the first two seasons but unfortunately he was too busy.
I’m very happy to see them all back in whatever role they do, from a cameo on Lower Decks to a full time role again like The Doctor coming to SFA. But I don’t blame any of them if they said they did their time and moved on. But Star Trek still has a way of pulling them back in lol.
But I suspect we will be seeing legacy actors for years on end regardless. Nostalgia is an overpowering entity in Hollywood these days and especially for ancient franchises like Star Trek and very few people under 30 are even watching it. I hate to say it, but it’s basically a franchise for us oldies who’ve been watching it for waaay too long lol. But because of that, it’s a reason to keep bringing back these old characters.
You have to remember Bakula even refused to appear in the new Quantum Leap reboot show and he is much more popular as the star of that show rather than Trek so for him to come back to Trek it needs to be something really special. And in terms of a post-TUC show, I thought the Kelvin Universe actors are currently in the right age that they could portray their prime universe versions. For example, I think they could do a Captain Sulu show set in the prime universe with John Cho in the role. I mean if I don’t find this confusing, I don’t think others would.
To be fair, we don’t know why he refused the new QL. Maybe he didn’t like the script. I have a feeling he didn’t want to return without Deal Stockwell but of course I can’t back that up. As for Trek, I can imagine be feels burned pretty badly with that show and ESP These Are the Voyages.
If Bellisario was writing and Stockwell was alive and he was the star he wouldn’t have turned it down. What he didn’t want to be was a cameo in a finale or a pilot episode. He also didn’t want to do something he already had done, as an actor he wants to do new things every single time to remain fresh.
It’s a moot point anyone because the remake was cancelled and was a huge failure. and fans of the original hated the show, i personally found aspects of it quite enjoyable but it never hit those highs the original did, and didn’t hit the novelty factor or originality of the original or the fun aspects like the Oh boy and the opening song. It didn’t have the impact on culture it barely was a ripple, and it didn’t have those timeless licensed music songs.
And unfortunately, it died a death in the culture wars for allegedly being too left of center or progressive. I really wish people stop prejudging a show this way and stop review bombing.
Its what i dislike about the critique of new Trek not the bad writing which I often agree with or the destruction of Star Trek canon, the constant bellyaching over its political bent or inclusivity. All the shows have had fantastic casting. SNW has some of my favorite female characters in all of Star Trek.
Its not just Star Trek either i hate the discourse over Star Wars being about female lead roles, or the hate of people of color, or raging against LGBT. It makes me so angry. All those actresses and female creatives deserve to be lauded and treated like the wonder people they are. and Kathy Kennedy i might have some disagreements over how legacy characters were handled but she deserves an apology over the force is female lie which never even was a thing.
Daisy Ridley deserves to be treated like the wonderful person she is, same with Amandla Stenberg. and Moses Ingram. And they need to leave Rachel Zegler alone.
I TOTALLY get where she is coming from.
Good For Her.
You know who would’ve had a really good idea about what Janeway was up to at the end of her Starfleet career or on the first day of her life after Starfleet? Jeri Taylor.
The one area where TPTB and Mulgrew presumably line up is on liberal issues, so while they might agree on a premise, I think it would come down to execution as always. TPTB don’t execute worth a damn regardless of good intentions, so why should she jump into something unless it was actual prestige TV, not lipservice to same?
Exactly my dear. Mulgrew did her time for Star Trek and was happy to do Prodigy. But returning full time and as the lead is a different situation entirely. People who make NuTrek today mostly seems clueless, at least going by Discovery, Picard and even SNW. I acknowledge that SNW is a more popular show, but it feels as empty and quite bland when it comes down to the stories themselves. It’s only popular because it regurgitates similar stories from much better shows and people like Pike, Spock and Uhura, but it’s a very shallow and immature show with nothing new to offer unless you like musicals haha.
Mulgrew doesn’t want to come back to an iconic character unless it’s a show she can proudly hang her head high with. And she is clearly worried she won’t get that with these new people running it.
Honestly I remembered how shocked I was when it was revealed she would be on Prodigy lol. But I said then, it’s probably a way to open the door to get her to do something in live action.
Again may not happen and especially if they can’t come up with something really strong for her. But I think for us dozens of us Prodigy fans proves that there is still a lot of creativity for new stories out there, yes even in NuTrek. They do something similar again with a live action show (and make clear it’s NOT a kids show this time ;)), she’ll probably get on board.
It sounds like she wants what she got on that show, something with a real vision and a plan plotted out and not something half assed and poorly thought out that Picard ended up being.
I enjoyed season 1 & 2 of Picard and the ideas that they presented, but they both had disappointing endings. They did not completely satisfy all of the challenges they presented by the time they made it to episode 10. Terry Matalas then had to clean up a fairly disjointed series in season 3 and to his credit he pulled it off! To me TNG was always about the ensemble and to have Picard appear without (all of) them across the first two seasons was misguided and wrong. I understand Patrick’s desire to do something different but the TNG series was never just about Picard and people (rightly) wanted the gang back together.
Wow, that was a very frank and honest answer. Good for her!
I think they could write her into any situation competently if they really wanted to… The question is what kind of people are at the helm within production?…
In these very polar times we could well have the absolute worst people running the show… Or the best 🤷♀️
She’s right to be cautious. Picard seasons 1 and 2 were very poorly written and acted, much of DSC was poorly written too. Mulgrew knows that. I think she also knows how niche Star Trek has become and has seen the drop in quality and popularity.
I went to see Kate in The Beacon, the play she did in NYC. I had forgotten all about it, was walking down the street, wondered why the title rang a bell and then saw her name. Ok, great! The play was thick with characters and a surprising, slow, well-earned reveal. This is the second time I’ve seen her live in a theater, and her performance made me construct all kinds of dramatic scenarios in my head.
My takeaway is that Kate relishes complexity and seriousness and is still very quick on her feet. I can’t say I entirely enjoyed the show, but I definitely admired that so much happened on a single stage, and to each and every character.
I have no idea if we’d really want to see a Janeway show — but I have no doubt that a stand alone film would be a good idea if it wasn’t all about dumb action getting us to the next narrative target too quickly.
I really respect Mulgrew for being so protective of her character. Prodigy has done right by the character so I see why she accepted that project.
I think I’ll just echo what others are saying. The Picard series was a struggle to pull off and if reports about studio interference are true, then it’s unlikely we’ll get anything worthwhile from the effort and I share a ton of skepticism at this point. I would love to see it, no mater what comes of it, but I think we’e reached a point where Star Trek is moving on from the Berman era so the likelihood of further series based on these shows seem very unlikely.
They just added The Doctor to SFA and offered Jeri Ryan another show last year. And the comedy show Newsome is working on said it would involve 25th century legacy characters of it gets approved.
I don’t think these characters are going anywhere for a long time.
That’s a bit of a word salad response on her part. I’m reading a couple of things into it. One, that what was discussed didn’t extend beyond batting a few ideas around. Enough to pique her interest, but not enough to secure a commitment. I’m thinking she did watch three seasons of Picard and found it…. pedestrian. Apparently, she doesn’t want pedestrian, or a reunion show.
Actually it doesn’t even sound like they pitched ideas around. It sounds more like Kurtzman wanted her thoughts about playing the character in live action again and she basically said what she said here and just unsure about it because she doesn’t want to do something that will end up subpar and seeing what happened with Picard.
So even if a show happens at all, it won’t be anytime soon. But I can guarantee you this, we’ll probably get a Janeway show before another theatrical movie lol.
I wish I was joking, but…
“ Apparently, she doesn’t want pedestrian”
Didn’t stop her the first time!
I respect Kate for being protective of her character, unlike Patrick, who ran his character into the ground.
That being said, I don’t think her character has anywhere else to go. If she was going to return, it should have been in the STU finale of Picard S3. She shouldn’t make the mistake Robert Picardo is about to make, which is participate in a bad idea that will diminish the character he’s played further.
…that’s how I feel about Picardo’s participation in SFA too. I don’t think it’s going to do The Doctor character any favors, but guess we’ll see for sure when it airs.
I appreciate her realistic take on the franchise as it stands today.
I got to speak to Kate Mulgrew back when the show was on the air. I had missed an episode of Voyager because of local sports programming. I called Paramount to ask if i could get a copy of the episode I missed. As I was talking to the receptionist on the phone Miss Mulgrew was walking by her and the receptionist asked if I would like to speak to her. Of course I did and we had a down to earth human conversation and I did mention I liked the show and why i was calling. She was very polite and nice and I will never forget that. Kate if your reading this ,yes I think you should do a Janeway thingy. It would be wonderful and nobody got to see the story just after you guys got back from your trip really. It was was touched on minutely.
Kate Mulgrew is a true Trekkie. She knows the lore, the history, and loves the entire franchise. Other actors also appreciate it, but she is truly one of us.