The first day of New York Comic Con has started with a bang on the Star Trek Universe panel, revealing a key piece of casting news for Nickelodeon’s upcoming animated series Star Trek: Prodigy—Kate Mulgrew is coming back as Captain Kathryn Janeway.
It’s probably best to let Mulgrew speak for herself of returning to a role she imbued such power and verve over the entire run of Star Trek: Voyager:
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“I have invested every scintilla of my being in Captain Janeway, and I can’t wait to endow her with nuance that I never did before in Star Trek: Prodigy. How thrilling to be able to introduce to these young minds an idea that has elevated the world for decades. To be at the helm again is going to be deeply gratifying in a new way for me.”
There are no specific details about how Janeway’s role will fit into the story of Prodigy, and the details we have of the show so far are slim, but we do know it will follow a group of teenagers who crew an abandoned starship in order to seek out adventures. This would seem to be setting up Janeway as a key mentor to the group, which is incredibly fitting to her position in the Trek universe.
Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman would seem to agree on that front:
“Captain Janeway was held to a different standard than her predecessors. She was asked to embody an inhuman level of perfection in order to be accepted as ‘good enough’ by the doubters, but showed them all what it means to be truly outstanding. We can think of no better captain to inspire the next generation of dreamers on Nickelodeon, than she.”
It’s good to hear someone in Kurtzman’s position acknowledge that Janeway had a harder road to travel than many of her predecessors (and successors) to the captain’s chair, and reassert her importance to Trek’s mythology and legacy. Whatever role she take up in the new series, it’s sure good to know she’s back.
Further casting announcements are expected in the coming months, and Star Trek: Prodigy will likely air on Nickelodeon at some point in 2021.
