The Star Trek franchise is among the most venerable of all 20th century entertainment properties. Having already birthed nine TV series and 13 feature films since its initially short-lived debut run in the 1960s, the thinking person’s space opera has mapped out the furthest reaches of the galaxy and all points in between. But now, it is prepared to boldly breach a demographic that it has not specifically attempted to tap before: kids.
Driven by showrunners Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman, as well as director Ben Hibon, Nickelodeon’s animated “Star Trek: Prodigy” will introduce a fresh cast of protagonists, as well as animated versions of legacy characters, in particular the “Star Trek: Voyager” fan favorite Kathryn Janeway, voiced by returning actor Kate Mulgrew. Produced in partnership with Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin from Secret Hideout, and CBS Studios’ Eye Animation Production, “Star Trek: Prodigy” will first roll out on Paramount Plus later this month, before heading into Nickelodeon’s regular programming.
Centered around an entirely non-human primary cast of characters, “Prodigy” features the voices of Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Brett Gray and Rylee Alazraqui as a band of young misfits who stumble upon an abandoned Starfleet ship and take off into the final frontier, learning how to function as a proper crew along the way.
Popular on Variety
This will certainly not be “Star Trek’s” maiden voyage into animation; most recently, “Star Trek: Lower Decks” launched on CBS All Access in 2020. It will, however, be the first to specifically target a younger audience, and the Hagemans were circumspect about making the new show kid-friendly without losing the heady appeal of the original series.
“It was just about the perspective [of the characters], which kind of stems from our own fears about doing a ‘Star Trek’ show,” says Dan Hageman who, along with his brother, has written for everything from “The Lego Movie” to “Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia.” “I would think, ‘I could never write what they say on the bridge, these characters have all been through Starfleet, they’re the best of the best.’ So the very first thing was, what if we just take kids who don’t know any of this? You give them a ship, and they learn about the ship, they learn about the procedures. It felt like a totally new way into ‘Star Trek’ that would be relatable.”
The brothers trace their own love of “Star Trek” back to the original set of films, particularly “The Wrath of Khan” and “The Search for Spock,” and look to the epic sweep of those films as a model for their own serialized storylines.
“You look at the entire ‘Trek’ universe, all the series and films, and those two have some of the most emotional moments,” says Kevin Hageman. “They take big story swings, and those are the types of stories we like to tell: very cinematic stories that have both brains and heart.”
Per Nickelodeon president of animation Ramsey Naito, “I was never skeptical” that “Prodigy” could manage to appeal to both young newcomers and adult fans of the series, crediting director Hibon for “bringing a visual style and a level of sophistication to the show that exceeded all expectations.”
“It’s an aspirational show,” she continues. “Nickelodeon’s core audience is 6 to 11, but the show’s serialized storytelling and character relationships are so sophisticated, the stakes are high, and it really stretches to the older end of our audience.”
