‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Is Making a Surprise Return!

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 has been announced for a 2024 release on Netflix. An instant classic, Star Trek’s first animated series aimed at younger audiences debuted on Paramount+ in October 2021, inspiring a new generation of Star Trek fans.

While all 20 Prodigy season 1 episodes were initially released through Paramount+, they were then subsequently removed when the series was canceled in June 2023. However, on October 11, 2023, Netflix announced that Prodigy season 1 would return to streaming later this year. “Season 1 of the animated series launches onto Netflix later this year,” the company announced on X (formerly Twitter), “while a brand new season 2 is slated to debut in 2024.”

“Thank you to our incredible Star Trek: Prodigy fans, who championed not just a show, but a community that’s always been connected by the belief that we build a better future together,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman and co-showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman posted in a joint statement. “We set out to inspire you, but you inspired us. The team is still hard at work on the second season, and we can’t wait to share it with the amazing fans around the world.”

Likewise, Kate Mulgrew, the voice of Admiral Kathryn Janeway in season 2, said, “I’ve always held that the Star Trek fan base is among the strongest and most intelligent in the world. They have shown their collective passion, and we’re happy to be able to celebrate Prodigy once again.”

Here’s what we know about Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 so far, including the show’s plot, cast, and more!

Who could be returning in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2?

The first season of Prodigy follows a group of young misfits who have been imprisoned by The Diviner (John Noble). A member of the mysterious Vau N’Akat, the Diviner is an enigmatic and imposing figure who runs the Tars Lamora asteroid mining colony located in the Delta Quadrant. The action begins in 2383 when Dal R’El (Brett Gray), a human genetic augment, discovers the U.S.S. Protostar, an experimental Starfleet vessel formerly helmed by Captain Chakotay, inexplicably buried deep under Tars Lamora.

Able to communicate with his fellow inmates for the first time, thanks to the Protostar’s universal translator, Dal recruits a makeshift crew: Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), the Brikar; Zero (Angus Imrie), the Medusian; Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), the cybernetically augmented Tellarite; and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), the Mellanoid slime worm. When the newly formed crew uses the Protostar to escape Tars Lamora at the end of the two-part series premiere, they bring the Diviner’s cloned daughter, Gwyn (Ella Purnell), along with them.

Once aboard the Protostar, the crew is introduced to the Emergency Training Hologram, a.k.a. Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), modeled after the U.S.S. Voyager’s Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Star Trek: Voyager series. Hologram Janeway believes the group of escapees is a crew of Starfleet cadets. 

What happened in Star Trek: Prodigy season 1?

Throughout the first season of Prodigy, the Protostar crew is introduced to the ideals of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. Inspired by those ideals, the young crew (who mistakenly believe they are criminals) start using the Protostar and its unique proto-warp drive to prove they are committed to the ideals of the Federation so that Starfleet will overlook their crimes and accept them as cadets.

However, when the Starfleet hopefuls learn that The Diviner actually comes from the future, it complicates their mission of making it to Federation space. It turns out Vau N’Akat society collapsed after Starfleet made first contact when the Protostar traveled through a wormhole and arrived in the future.

Blaming their society’s destruction on Starfleet’s first contact, Vau N’Akat generals travel back in time to destroy the Federation before the Starfleet vessel can make first contact. To this end, the Diviner and his allies installed the Living Construct in the Protostar, a sentient computer capable of sending a signal that causes Starfleet ships to fire upon themselves. But before this plot can be executed, the Protostar travels to an unknown point in the past, sending The Diviner and other Vau N’Akat individuals back in time to search for the rigged Protostar.

In the Prodigy Season 1 midseason premiere, the Protostar crew discovers the Living Construct for themselves. It starts to work on attempting to disable or remove the device to allow their admission to Starfleet. However, their attempts to keep Starfleet out of harm’s way by avoiding communication with a Federation vessel are complicated because of the relentless pursuit of Vice Admiral Janeway, the “real” Janeway, who is especially motivated to locate the missing vessel because Chakotay (Robert Beltran) was the original captain of the Protostar.

The Protostar crew is unable to remove the Living Construct. The device activates and threatens to destroy Starfleet in the two-part season finale. They must sacrifice the Protostar (and, by extension, Hologram Janeway) to spare Starfleet from self-annihilation. Fortunately, the shuttlecraft that saves the Protostar crew eventually arrives at Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, in San Francisco.

Thanks to the support of Janeway, the Protostar crew is accepted into Starfleet (except Gwyn, who chooses to travel to her pre-first contact homeworld). The first season ends with the real Janeway taking the Protostar crew under her wing, revealing they will join her aboard the U.S.S. Voyager-A in Prodigy season 2.

What do we know about Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 so far?

Kevin and Dan Hageman revealed a four-minute first look at the season 2 premiere episode earlier this summer, “where the former crew of the U.S.S. Protostar and now warrant Starfleet officers in training are reunited for an internship under the command of Admiral Janeway,” per StarTrek.com, where the extended clip can be found. Excitingly for fans of Voyager, we also know that Robert Picardo is returning because, in the clip, we see Janeway’s dear friend, The Doctor, escort the trainees to the admiral’s new ship.

Can’t wait for the series to arrive on Netflix? The two volumes of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 are available on DVD and Blu-ray today.

(featured image: Paramount+)