Star Trek: Prodigy Creators Talk Series’ Future on Netflix

This isn’t the first time I’ve interviewed Star Trek: Prodigy creators/executive producers Dan and Kevin Hageman about the series’ first season debuting. I spoke to them when the series premiered on Paramount+, before it made its way to Blu-ray, and when it aired on Nickelodeon. Our latest conversation comes ahead of Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 coming to Netflix on Christmas Day after being canceled by and removed from Paramount+. The good news is that along with Netflix being the new home of Star Trek: Prodigy’s first season, the company has also picked up Season 2 for release at a future date, most likely in 2024.

In a way, this is a homecoming for the Hagemans, having created Trollhunters for Netflix. As they recall in our conversation, Trollhunters also premiered on the streaming service on Christmas Day. Perhaps that bodes well for Star Trek: Prodigy? Here’s what the creative duo had to say about Star Trek: Prodigy‘s move to Netflix and what it means for the future of the series:

Was Netflix the obvious frontrunner from the start of the search for Star Trek: Prodigy‘s new streaming home, given that you have a history with the company from working on Trollhunters? Were there other contenders?

Dan Hageman: I don’t think there was a frontrunner by any means, but I think we’re very comfortable with our history with Netflix and shows dropping Christmas Day. So, I don’t know if you know, but Trollhunters dropped on Christmas Day, and I remember, originally, we were like, “That’s a horrible time.” And they’re like, “No, kids get their new devices. There’s no school on. Their parents let them watch as much TV as they want, and they can binge a whole season.” So, when that happened on Trollhunters and Trollhunters became quite a success over there, we found out we got dropped on December 25, that’s a massive honor. We’re so proud.

Kevin Hageman: And I think now that people have seen our Season 1, there are similarities to Trollhunters. You understand our voice. You understand our 22-minute serialization. There’s always a hook. It’s been written and built to be a binge-able show. On Paramount+ it was week by week, which was interesting. You’re only getting 22 minutes, and 22 minutes of a good show never feels like enough. You want to kind of watch the next one.

Does that mean that when Season 2 comes around it’s going to go by that Netflix binge model as opposed to the weekly?

KH: It’s a good question. We have no idea. They could drop five at a time, they could drop 10. I’m watching a show right now and they dropped half of the season, and now I wait for whenever they’re going to drop the next half of the season.

DH: That’s a next-interview question. I don’t know.

Jamie Lovett:

Netflix has a pretty expansive kids content library. It has Trollhunters, of course, but also stuff like The Dragon Prince and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Do you feel like Star Trek: Prodigy fits in well with what their catalog already offers, or that it offers something that their catalog was maybe lacking?

DH: I feel confident in our thumbnails. I feel Prodigy is a gorgeous show, and that’s something silly but I’m just super excited about what the thumbnails look like. Because I think I’m excited to draw in fans that are not Star Trek fans, but just see beautiful animation and they go, “What is that?” And then they watch it and they get introduced to Star Trek. Trojan horse.

KH: I think it is a really good fit. Netflix has a lot of great shows, and a lot of their stuff is more 2D animation, right? Or adult animation, or Castlevania and dark stuff. What we hopefully tried to do is a nice, sweet spot for kids and adults to sit back and enjoy.

DH: Yeah, it’s a wide net where I think we can grab people from age four to 44 or whatever.

How confident were you that this show would end up finding a new home after it left Paramount+? Because, on the one hand, you were already in production, but on the other hand, it’s wild out there right now.

DH: We were 100%. We couldn’t see a world in which they would just erase this show.

KH: Yeah, it felt like our show was too good for this. And I don’t know why and what happened. And yes, we were 100% confident, and [Alex] Kurtzman and CBS Studios, everyone loves the show.

DH: Well, they were paying for it. They were paying for Season 2 to be finished.

KH: They paid for us to finish out season two. But on the flip side, it’s still utterly frightening and devastating. This is the worst, not just getting canceled but your production was about to be stopped, to never be seen again.

DH: I think that’s why we were 100%.

KH: You can’t find our trailer or anything on YouTube, it’s just fan stuff. You can’t find our show. It’s crazy.

DH: I feel like if a studio is spending money to finish Season 2, you’re like, “No one spends money to just let it go. They don’t do that.” So, I think that’s what gave us the confidence and the hope.

Do you feel like the mission of the show at all changes with it no longer being on Paramount+? To me, the mission has always seemed to be what you were just talking about, making a show that brings new Star Trek fans and old Star Trek fans together. I know season two was a long way into production before any of this happened, but has that factored into how you are approaching talking about the show, whatever marketing might go into the show, and thinking about the show now that it’s a new audience and not on the service with all the Star Treks?

DH: It hasn’t changed us or our approach. We’ve always seen the show as the on-ramp for Star Trek. I get intimidated by thinking, “If I didn’t know anything about Star Trek, where would I just drop in?” Because it’s a very lived-in world. It’s a very rich canon. And even the shows you watch now, you have to know the difference between a Vulcan and a Romulan. And I’m like, “It seems like a simple question but,” I’m like, “There’s people out there who, you even say that their eyes start glazing over.”

KH: Well, they look very similar, the species too.

DH: Yeah, they do. One’s emotional, one’s more logical. I’m like, “Really?” But yeah, so that’s always been our approach on our show is to tell a great Star Trek story but through the eyes of people who don’t know too much about Star Trek.

For somehow who knows you via Netflix knows Trollhunters and might see Star Trek: Prodigy under a “You Might Also Like” or “Because You Watched Trollhunters” banner or something on Netflix, do you think there’s a connective tissue there? Are there thematic resonances? Things that people who enjoy Trollhunters will find in Prodigy as well?

DH: 100%.

KH: Oh yeah. We have a very earnest way of storytelling. I think there’s a lot. The comedy, I feel like, is very … I don’t know. There are not many people doing earnest stuff, and Guillermo [del Toro] would talk about, “We wear the heart on the sleeve.” And I think that’s where the hope and the feel-good-ness of the show comes from. And then the pacing of the show, the 22 minutes, and when you finish one it leads right into the next, that’s also very similar to Trollhunters. And the stakes are always real and it’s falling in love with these kids.

KH: We love to write. Trollhunters is a bunch of ordinary teenagers thrust into the extraordinary secret world of trolls that live underneath their town. Prodigy is about a bunch of normal, in that sense, alien teenagers thrust onto a brand new starship, introduced to the greater galaxy, right? So, it’s the same sort of feeling. It’s very, hopefully, identifiable as leaving your backyard and exploring, great wish fulfillment.

How does Star Trek: Prodigy going to Netflix affect the shows future and its sense of connection with the Star Trek franchise? We got a little taste already, we’ve seen the Doctor in a clip from the show’s second season. What can you say about what the show is going to have to offer as it, hopefully, continues on Netflix as part of the Star Trek universe?

DH: It sounds like Star Trek: Prodigy is two seasons but if you look at Lower Decks, their seasons are 10 episodes. Our seasons are 20 episodes. So, technically, we’re on four seasons. You can make that point right there.

But again in Season 2, I love the end of Season as much as I love the end of Season 1. And we’re never wrapping up a series. We’re always having an open door for the next season, and I’m really excited at where it can go. That will be up to the fans and up to the audience.

KH: Yeah, if the audience is there, my hope is we’re following the footsteps of The Original Series. We were canceled, where we came back, and then there will be movies and future seasons. That will be amazing.

Since you mentioned the episode count, that gets me thinking about how, in a way, Star Trek: Prodigy harkens back to kids’ television cartoons of past eras. Do you think that that production method is part of what has given Prodigy a unique, that you have so many episodes to tell these longer stories as opposed to the more condensed 8 to 13 that is typical in television these days?

DH: It’s tough because we’re always looking at, “How do you tell a story that keeps you interested?” And our sweet spot is around 10 episodes. And what we try to do is have 10 episodes and then a bigger story that has a bigger ending in the next 10 episodes, but each one feels like a chunk. And this goes back to our Ninjago days, with 10 to 13 episodes, because I think carrying the water for 20 episodes is a lot for one story. You need little mini adventures and mini stories to keep building and paying off. Or else, I think, an audience will get disinterested around episode 12 or so.

KH: But I think as satisfying as Season 1 is, there’s a lot of open threads that have been left open at the finale. And I think once you watch all 40 episodes with season two, it will feel like one grand meal. Do you know what I mean? It all works as one grand story.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 comes to Netflix on December 25th.