Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)
(written from a Production point of view)
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Warning! This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Prodigy, and thus may contain spoilers.
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This page contains information specifically pertaining to the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy.
Episodes[]
Summary[]
Background information[]
Season 2 Winter 2023 announcement
- The renewal of Prodigy for a second season was announced 8 November 2021. [1]
- On 28 March 2023, it was announced that the second season was expected to premier on Paramount+ later that year in the Winter. [2]
- On 23 June 2023, Paramount announced the cancellation of Prodigy and the removal of the series from both Paramount+ and conglomerate sister platform Nickelodeon, which essentially constituted an elimination from the official Star Trek franchise (although DVD and Blu-ray releases of episodes from Season 1 remained commercially available). It was also announced that the second season of Prodigy would finish post-production, and that the series as a whole would concurrently be shopped around to other streaming services outside the Paramount Global conglomerate. [3] [4] [5] The series removal from Paramount+ occurred three days later, on 26 June 2023. [6]
- Robert Picardo is set to reprise his role as The Doctor. A clip was released at the August 3-6 2023 Star Trek Las Vegas con. [7]
- On 11 October 2023, the news broke that it was Netflix that had picked up Prodigy, with season two set to premier in 2024, [8] [9] after season one had debuted on the streaming service on 25 December 2023. [10] [11]
- On 22 March 2024, the whole season was released on France.TV (the French public television's streaming service) as well as on AppleTV+ France, well in advance of the Netflix release. [12] A serious spoiler event for Netflix (France), the embarrassed showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman hastened to publicly apologize for the premature release a few days later, claiming that it ostensibly concerned a case of "unfortunate miscommunication." Apparently it had not been a leak with malicious intent by the two French platforms – whom the conglomerate had also sold the season's streaming rights to, as it turned out – but rather an instance of forgetting to inform everyone involved about the complicated international rights licensing and Paramount not making any attempt to synchronize international release dates. [13] [14] [15] The sloppy handling of streaming contracts is telling for the financial chaos the conglomerate found itself in by 2024 in its desperation to generate as much revenue as humanly possible. The severe financial crisis Paramount Global experienced at the time, was brought on by among others the multi-billion losses incurring Paramount+ (US$3.5 billion in 2022 and 2023 alone, [16] see also: main article), only aggravated by respective losses incurred by the more recent virtually uninterrupted stream of theatrical film flops as produced by Paramount Pictures. Equally telling was that Paramount left the apologizing to former employees they had booted out earlier, while remaining absolutely silent on the matter themselves.
- On 3 June 2024, it was announced that the season would have its Netflix premiere on 1 July 2024. [17]
- It was also announced a day later that in the European countries where it operates, instead of Netflix, the second season was picked up by the streaming service SkyShowtime, a joint venture between Paramount and Comcast which had also streamed the first season. [18] Contrary to Paramount+ though, the first season had remained uninterruptedly available on its SkyShowtime spinoff, despite it being partly owned by Paramount Global as well. The second season is to premiere on SkyShowtime on 17 August 2024. [19]
- A direct consequence of Prodigy's removal from Paramount+ was that the second season did not receive any coverage on the Kurtzman-era aftershow The Ready Room. This was an unintentional snubbing of not only performers Robert Picardo and Robert Beltran, who recurred as their respective The Doctor and Chakotay legacy characters, but of Ready Room host Wil Wheaton in particular, who recurred in his Wesley Crusher legacy role in a far more prominent way than his prior cameo-adjacent-only reappearance in PIC: "Farewell". The franchise's official website StarTrek.com, though, was permitted to report on the second season, albeit on a very limited basis only, [20] [21] which was along with the show's continued presence on SkyShowtime, a further manifestation of the waffling attitude the franchise entertained towards its former family member.
Reception[]
Credits[]
Cast[]
- Brett Gray as Dal R'El
- Ella Purnell as Gwyndala
- Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog
- Angus Imrie as Zero
- Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk
- Dee Bradley Baker as Murf
- John Noble as Ilthuran
- Jameela Jamil as Asencia
- Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher
- Jimmi Simpson as Lorekeeper / Drednok
- Robert Beltran as Chakotay
- Robert Picardo as The Doctor
- and Kate Mulgrew as Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway / Hologram Janeway
Crew[]
See also[]
External links[]
- Star Trek: Prodigy (season 2) at Wikipedia
- Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Season 2 episode reviews at Ex Astris Scientia
- Season 2 review at TrekCore
- 2023 Dan and Kevin Hageman interview on the future of Star Trek: Prodigy at TrekCore
- 2024 Dan and Kevin Hageman interview exploring Season 2 at TrekCore
| Previous season: PRO Season 1 |
Seasons of Star Trek: Prodigy |
Next season: Not yet announced |