It was a big weekend for the Star Trek Universe thanks to the virtual New York Comic Con. Aside from the new that Kate Mulgrew will be returning as Captain Janeway for Star Trek: Prodigy, we also learned there’s plenty more Trek to come.
Over the weekend Kurtzman was a guest on The Hollywood Reporter podcast Top 5 where he revealed that bringing back Janeway has been on the cards for a year, he also talked about how they came to the decision to have Mulgrew join Prodigy:
“When you’re looking at legacy characters you have to have a very specific reason to bring them back. Without revealing too many details, Kevin and Dan [Hageman] came in with a pitch that just blew the doors off the place. There was a really clear wonderful reason to bring Janeway into the story.”
With Prodigy joining the lineup in 2021 it becomes the fifth Star Trek series launched under Kurtzman’s watch with Section 31 still in development to become the sixth.
With so many balls in the air Kurtzman discussed the delicate balance between pleasing the established fanbase and creating shows which have individual voices.
“You always have to sell the property to the deep fans. They scrutinize everything in a way that fans of Trek have done since the beginning. You can never be doing anything that seeks to sort of say “Well we’re only going to hit one group here and we’re not going to care about another.” That being said, I think that the death of a great franchise is when you try to please everybody… I think some things have to be really focused on specific groups or specific ideas and you can assume not everybody will love it.”
It seems that Kurtzman and his creative team also have longevity in mind when it comes to Star Trek with plans afoot to keep the various series on the air through 2027.
“Heather Kadin and Aaron Baiers, who work with me at Secret Hideout, we literally just got off a call before this with the network mapping out with us through 2027. When I say that, it’s not like it’s set in stone, it’s just “okay here’s a plan, here’s what we’re looking, here’s how the different shows are going to drop.” Consider the that it takes a year from start of production to airing, so you have to plan way way in advance to get these things done and you have to stay on top of the zeitgeist and make sure what you’re doing is relevant.”
It seems that Trek fans have plenty to celebrate with the future of the franchise in Kurtzman’s hands.
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