This weekend, CBS Studios held a Star Trek: Prodigy panel at San Diego Comic-Con with voice stars Kate Mulgrew (Admiral Janeway), Brett Gray (Dal) and executive producers and co-showrunners Kevin & Dan Hageman to celebrate the Season 2 launch on Netflix. More than 700 fans packed seats for the event, received SDCC exclusive Star Trek: Prodigy sunglasses and were treated to a screening of Episode 214, “Cracked Mirror.”
Also during the panel, it was announced that Season 2 will be available on digital on demand from today (Monday, July 29) and on Blu-ray and DVD with all-new special features on November 12.
During the panel, moderated by Ryan Britt of Inverse, the Hagermans discussed the challenges of creating a show that would appeal both to Trekkies and fandom newbies, kids and adults, saying, “Our goal always was to tell a heart forward story that everyone can relate to and appreciate.”
Their efforts were praised by Mulgrew, who originated the character Kathryn Janeway in 1995 on the live-action series Star Trek: Voyager. “There’s no animated television show like this. Can you name another product like this? It doesn’t exist,” she told the showrunners, “because you bring to bear on every element that intrigues the young mind, every element of surprise, of intelligence, and they absorb it and they grow with it, and they grow with you.”
When asked about the continuation of her character in this animated form, Mulgrew added, “I couldn’t be more thrilled or more gratified to bring this to children in this way.”
Gray, who voices the Prodigy-original character Dal, talked about the journey for his young Starfleet captain of mysterious lineage. “I think Dal has a lot to learn still but cares for Gwyn [voiced by Ella Purnell] so deeply that it will make the learning easier for him and he can challenge her in ways that maybe she has not prepared for herself either. He needs to learn how to follow before he can lead fully.”
The Hagermans also talked about Season 2’s time travel elements, which gave them the opportunity to bring back another popular Star Trek character, Wesley Crusher (voiced by Wil Wheaton, who first took on the role in 1987 for Star Trek: The Next Generation). The EPs asserted, “Wesley Crusher is the original Prodigy of Star Trek and he needed to come back and help our kids.” Mulgrew quipped, “You know what Janeway’s favorite quote was — ‘Time travel gives me a headache.’”
When asked about what they hope that fans will take away from the show, Kevin Hageman said, “The first word that comes to my mind is ‘hope.'” Dan Hageman continued, “I really want to add ‘trust,’ because throughout this process it’s been a bit bumpy, but I think this is a great show and I think good things rise to the top.”
“I think [the show] really sort of emphasizes the fact to me that it doesn’t matter who you are, what your makeup is, where you come from with the right people around you, with the right team, with the right crew, and with the right amount of hope, you know, greatness is accessible to everybody,” said Gray.
The session closed with a bonus feature clip from the upcoming DVD release, in which Wheat describes Prodigy as “the Star Trek [he] wished existed when [he] was a kid, because it’s so accessible and a wonderful entry point to all of the pieces of Legacy Star Trek.”
