Showrunner McMahan says international release of Star Trek: Lower Decks is in the works; timelines for deals were disrupted by COVID-19

"Second Contact" -- Pictured (L-R) Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Nol Wells as Ensign Tendi and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Photo Cr: Best Possible Screen Grab CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s official. Star Trek: Lower Decks is here, for some of us, anyway. Lower Decks premiered on CBS All Access today in the United States, as well as the Crave streaming platform and CTV’s Sci-Fi channel in Canada. With no global distribution deal announced and fans around the world wondering when they will be able to see the new animated Star Trek, series creator Mike McMahan shed some light on why Lower Decks isn’t available everywhere yet, and why it is so important to “make it so”. As a guest on the podcast How to Kill an Hour, McMahan reassured fans that Star Trek: Lower Decks is going to have global distribution, but what he doesn’t know is when that will happen.

"I want everyone in the world to be able to see this show…CBS wants all you guys to see it too," McMahan said during the interview. He went on to explain that while he is not involved in the “deal making” process, the reason for the delay is “squarely because of [COVID-19]”, which altered production timelines dramatically.

"A lot of what we’re doing [for Lower Decks] unexpectedly got shifted two months earlier, because they were juggling around schedules and stuff,” McMahan said. “A lot of the different groups in entertainment — when you shuffle that stuff around, they can’t move as fast as [we can in production]. My priorities were keeping everybody on the show healthy — making it the best as possible — and getting it into everybody’s hands as soon as I can."

McMahan then explained why sharing Lower Decks with the world is so important, saying “Star Trek is universal. Star Trek is global. The characters in Star Trek aren’t an American set of characters. They are an Earth set of characters, and... we want everyone on the planet to be able to see this Federation show."

While McMahan wasn’t able to give a specific timeline for global release, he did sound optimistic that it will happen sooner rather than later. For those lucky enough to be able to watch it today, Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on CBS All Access.