Star Trek: Prodigy Announced for Nickelodeon

The next Star Trek series has officially arrived. As part of Thursday's Star Trek Universe panel during Comic-Con@Home, Nickelodeon and CBS Television Studios revealed the title and logo for the upcoming animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, which follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation. The series is developed by Emmy Award winners Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters and Ninjago) and overseen for Nickelodeon by Ramsey Naito, EVP, Animation Production and Development, Nickelodeon. The CG-animated television series will make its debut on Nickelodeon in 2021.

Star Trek: Prodigy comes from CBS' Eye Animation Productions (CBS Television Studios' new animation arm), Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Katie Krentz, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers alongside Kevin and Dan Hageman. Aaron Baiers will serve as a co-executive producer.

Star Trek: Prodigy joins ViacomCBS' expanding Star Trek franchise. It is the first Star Trek series aimed at younger audiences for Nickelodeon. The Star Trek Universe on CBS All Access currently includes the original series Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the development of a Section 31-based series with Michelle Yeoh.

Star Trek: Prodigy debuting in 2021 is something of a surprise given that Kadin suggested the animation process would take longer than that during a 2019 interview. "I was surprised!" she said. "As someone who makes big, live-action shows, I heard how long it was going to take, and I was like, 'What?!' Because it's 3D animation, so just takes that much longer… But the Hageman brothers [come from] Ninjago and TrollHunters, they're doing it, so it's definitely going to be more in that visual look."

She also explained why they chose the Hagemans to develop the project. "The reason we went to the Hagemans is because if you've seen their work, you know that they're not writing Muppet Babies," she explained. "It's not Little Spock and Little Kirk. It's not playing down [to viewers] that way. Even [with] their characters in Ninjago — they are teenagers — I was able to watch that with my kids, and they write with a very epic quality. They tell stories the way we tell stories in live-action: serialized, turning over cards… I think it will be a great way for fans to introduce the franchise to their kids, and for new fans to be formed because it's such a big franchise, [it can be hard] to get into as a kid."

Star Trek: Prodigy debuts in 2021.