Star Trek: Prodigy creators Kevin and Dan Hageman on the "relatable" crew of the USS Protostar

Brett Gray as Dal, Angus Imrie as Zero, and Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk in a teaser for Star Trek: Prodigy

OCTOBER 25, 2021 - Kevin and Dan Hageman, the brothers who serve as co-creators and executive producers of Star Trek: Prodigy, and director Ben Hibon, who also serves as executive producer, sat down with media outlets at New York Comic Con to share a bit about their vision for the show, the first animated Trek show for kids since the 1970’s Filmation animated series. TrekMovie.com shared a bit of their conversation last Friday, which focused on the opportunities and challenges of creating a Star Trek show specifically for children. The Hageman brothers made it clear that the priority was making something that captured the spirit of Star Trek without talking down to the audience.

“We never really view it as a kid show,” Dan Hageman said, “We view it as a show for people who don’t know Star Trek,  which could be young or old. […] We never want to dumb things down for kids. Kids are really smart. They may have a learning curve in the show, but they’ll get there.”

Kevin Hageman shared how the plot of Star Trek: Prodigy provides a great access point for kids by subverting the set-up of the other franchise series, which typically build themselves around established crews made up of trained Starfleet officers.

“If these main characters are outside of everything Starfleet and they start to discover it and learn it and stuff like that,” he began, “That’s really relatable and it’s a wonderful jumping-off point for kids, right? For most shows, it’s always these fully formed officers who just know everything. The best of the best. What kid is the best of the best?”

You can read the rest of the article, including their thoughts on holographic Captain Janeway and director Hibon’s visual approach to the show, at TrekMovie.com. Star Trek: Prodigy premieres October 28th on Paramount+.