Picture: Paramount
Netflix has announced that it will be saving the short-lived Paramount+ series Star Trek: Prodigy, which recently had its second renewal order scrapped. After shopping the project, Netflix has announced it’ll soon be the new streaming home for both season 1 in 2023 and season 2 in 2024.
Aimed at younger audiences, Star Trek: Prodigy is one of many Star Trek shows (or at least was) produced exclusively for Paramount+ and what was then called CBS All Access.
20 episodes of the series have aired thus far, with season 1 being released across two parts. Season 1, part 2, was released on Paramount+ between October 2021 and February 2022, while part 2 dropped weekly between October 2022 and December 2022.
Created by Kevin & Dan Hageman, the 3D animated series followed a motley crew of young aliens finding themselves living aboard an abandoned Starfleet ship. Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Jimmi Simpson, John Noble, and Kate Mulgrew lent their voices to the series.
In June 2023, Paramount+ joined other streamers like Disney in purging some of its content from the platform, including the first season of Star Trek: Prodigy. In addition, it reversed the season 2 renewal order. That season was already deep into production, and reports at the time suggested that it would be allowed to be shopped to other networks.
Season 2 will be released exclusively on Netflix in 2024
Fast forward to today, and Netflix has announced it’ll be the new home for both season 1, which will drop in late 2023 (keep an eye on our coming soon section for more), and will also exclusively launch season 2 at some point in 2024.
On October 11th, Netflix Tweeted:
“Star Trek: Prodigy is coming to Netflix!
Season 1 of the animated series launches onto Netflix later this year while a brand new Season 2 is slated to debut in 2024”
Picture: Paramount+
In a joint statement on Alex Kurtzman’s social pages, they thank the fans of the show and state that “they can’t wait to share it [season 2] with the amazing fans around the world.”
Statement by Alex Kurtzman and Dan & Kevin Hageman on the Star Trek: Prodigy revival
Aaron J. Waltke, a producer and screenwriter on Star Trek: Prodigy, posted shortly following the announcement with the hashtag “WeSavedStarTrekProdigy,” saying:
“At last, we can share the news… Star Trek: Prodigy has landed!
Our show is beyond thrilled to be joining NETFLIX for the ongoing adventures of the Protostar crew.
Star Trek fans across the galaxy — and young cadets in the making — have been granted the chance to see our series, many for the very first time. With a truly global audience, it is an extraordinary opportunity to grow our already formidable fanbase.
It is in no small part thanks to you, the fandom — who demonstrated through your extraordinary efforts that the stories of Starfleet, and the outsiders who aspire to it, will endure. We are so deeply humbled and grateful beyond words.
Many on the Prodigy team, including myself and the Hagemans, have created some exceptional television with Netflix — and we very much look forward to doing so again.
The possibilities are endless now that the world can see all 40 episodes of Prodigy’s first and second seasons in one place which our passionate cast and crew have worked so tirelessly on – with the potential for more as we boldly go and seek out this new horizon.
If you wish to see more Dal and Gwyn and Rok-Tahk and Zero and Jankom and Murf, viewing the show on Netflix as soon as it drops – and telling others the good news, to do the same — is unequivocally the way.
There’s not much more to say. Other than… Go fast. Spread the word. Together…
…We Saved Star Trek: Prodigy.
Set a course for home.”
This is part of a recent strategy shift from Paramount Global, which has been much keener on licensing titles, to places like Netflix. Earlier in 2023, we saw them shop Ripley to Netflix, which was originally due to be released on Showtime. That’s in addition to other licensing, such as Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber being licensed in the US in October 2023 after being yanked from Paramount+.
On the kid’s side, we’ve also seen them license some of its Nickelodeon content to the service in recent years and work on a brand new Original Spongebob movie scheduled for 2024. We also see Nickelodeon titles arrive exclusively on Netflix from the 2019 output deal that includes the Erin & Aaron, slated for a November release.
At one point, Netflix was streaming home to the majority of older Star Trek shows. It had the complete collection of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, The Next Generation, and even The Animated Series for a period of time, but they slowly departed throughout 2021 and into 2022.
Internationally, Netflix was also the distributor for Star Trek: Discovery until late 2021, when the first three seasons (marked as Netflix Originals) were unceremoniously removed, with all future seasons exclusive to Paramount+.
Are you looking forward to Star Trek: Prodigy being part of Netflix’s lineup? Let us know in the comments below.
