5 Years Later, The Most Mistreated Star Trek Show Still Deserves Better

Published Oct 29, 2026, 9:45 AM EDT

John Orquiola is a TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Five years ago, Star Trek: Prodigy, the most mistreated Star Trek series, premiered on Paramount+. Created by Kevin and Dan Hageman as a co-production with Nickelodeon, Star Trek: Prodigy ran for two seasons on two different streaming services. Today, Star Trek: Prodigy's 40 episodes are nowhere to be found on Paramount+ or Netflix, and can only be purchased on Prime Video or physical media.

A CGI animated series aimed at younger audiences, but smart enough and so steeped in Star Trek lore to engage older viewers, to watch Star Trek: Prodigy is to understand that it was truly Star Trek to the core. Prodigy was designed to bring Star Trek's values to the elusive youthful demographic. With vividly realized characters, stunning visuals, tremendous vocal performances, and ingenious stories that pushed Star Trek beyond its live-action limits, Prodigy was special through and through.

Yet Star Trek: Prodigy fought an uphill battle for its entire existence because it was a "cartoon for kids." Even with Kate Mulgrew voicing different versions of the iconic Admiral Kathryn Janeway, several Star Trek: Voyager actors joining so that Prodigy was a Voyager sequel, and hot young stars like Fallout's Ella Purnell as part of its cast, Star Trek: Prodigy was a hard sell to Trekkers. Prodigy's all-too-brief voyages are defined by the baffling mismanagement it suffered to the bitter end.

Star Trek Prodigy Deserved Better Than How Paramount+ & Netflix Treated It

While Star Trek: Prodigy's streaming numbers on Paramount+ and Netflix were not officially released, the show evidently didn't find a big enough audience. Meanwhile, Prodigy was the first Star Trek victim of cost-cutting as Skydance Media began its purchase of Paramount Global, which was completed in 2025. In June 2023, Star Trek fans were shocked when Paramount+ suddenly canceled Prodigy during production of season 2.

TV shows get canceled all of the time, including Star Trek shows. However, the way Star Trek: Prodigy was axed felt cruel; not only was season 2 canceled, but every season 1 episode was immediately purged from Paramount+. Unlike every other Star Trek series that lives on Paramount+ long past their end dates, fans now couldn't watch Prodigy at all, and potential new audiences who might have discovered the show were out of luck.

Star Trek fans were understandably outraged, and the first great Trekker fan movement of the 21st century began on social media to save Star Trek: Prodigy. This culminated in a spectacular GoFundMe movement organized by UK fan Michelle Stokes to hire an airplane to soar over Los Angeles with a #SaveStarTrekProdigy banner. The stunt worked, and soon, negotiations with Netflix began to import Star Trek: Prodigy to the biggest streaming service in the world.

Netflix not only hosted Star Trek: Prodigy season 1's 20 episodes, but financed season 2's completion. In a first for the Star Trek franchise, all 20 season 2 episodes of Prodigy premiered on the same day in July 2024. What seemed like an epic win, however, was soon followed by gut punches. Star Trek: Prodigy's jump to Netflix was hardly advertised, and ultimately, Prodigy's numbers didn't meet Netflix's metrics to order season 3.

Further, Netflix's deal to carry Star Trek: Prodigy only lasted 18 months per season. By the start of 2025, Star Trek: Prodigy was no longer streaming anywhere. Yes, physical media existed, and episodes could be purchased, but new fans discovering Prodigy now required an intentional purchase. Today, Star Trek: Prodigy is the one missing show that makes Paramount+'s claim as "the home for Star Trek" ring false.

Star Trek: Prodigy Could Have Run For Years

Like its fellow animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy had the potential to run for many years. The young characters didn't age unless required by the story, and the cast and producers genuinely loved the show and were committed to it. Kate Mulgrew herself was a vocal supporter of the "genius" Hageman brothers and Star Trek: Prodigy, intending to play Janeway for as long as the show lasted.

Star Trek: Lower Decks ran for 5 seasons and 50 episodes on Paramount+ before ending in December 2024.

Star Trek: Prodigy had no limits, even compared to the mega-budgeted and ambitious live-action series like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Prodigy season 1 was a sweeping journey from the Delta Quadrant to Earth, concluding with a stunning battle and emotional denouement that decided the fate of Starfleet. Prodigy season 2 went even bigger, dancing across the Multiverse in jeopardy, and resolving the epic conflict between Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) and the evil Asencia (Jameela Jamil).

Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy ended with an enticing "To be continued," as the young crew of the USS Protostar launched a new mission to bring the light of the United Federation of Planets to far-flung corners of space. Even barring a full season 3, Star Trek: Prodigy's continuation could have been ideal for 90-minute animated movies, which would have further evolved young heroes Gwyn, Dal R'El (Brett Gray), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), Zero (Angus Imrie), Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), and Maj'el (Michaela Dietz).

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, not-so-coincidentally the second Star Trek series specifically designed to attract young audiences, now joins Prodigy as a two-season wonder not given the chance to be all it could be. Yet, despite how maligned Starfleet Academy is, at least new viewers can still discover the show on Paramount+. Star Trek: Prodigy is just... missing. Without this unfairly mistreated, underappreciated masterpiece, Star Trek's grand story will always be incomplete.

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  Gwyn (voice)

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  Brett Gray

  Dal (voice)