‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Cast Breaks Down the Important Messages in Franchise (VIDEO)

There’s just something so special about Star Trek, and that continues with the multiple series of the franchise on now, including the animated Prodigy.

Voice cast members Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway), Brett Gray (Dal), and Jameela Jamil (Ensign Asencia) sat down with Andrea Towers in TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine’s studio at New York Comic Con 2022 to tease its return on October 27.

Mulgrew attributes fans’ reactions to their series to the legacy of the franchise, calling it “fairly predictable but wonderful nonetheless because it’s so astonishingly good and the message is so hopeful in a time that is arguably rather bleak.”

Jamil grew up with Star Trek, and with “so many hidden messages around race, around class, around people’s behavioral differences, about love, about learning how to put your differences aside and work together, all messages that we seem to need now more than ever,” she thinks that Prodigy is a “much more palatable way for kids” to see all of that. But for Gray, Prodigy was his introduction to the franchise, which he finds “perfect.”

Looking ahead to what’s to come, Jamil couldn’t share much about her character but promised that her journey will get “fresh and weird.” As for Mulgrew, there are her many iterations of Janeway — including someone she couldn’t discuss! “Expect the unexpected” from her on the show, she teased. “It is harrowing what takes place and then strangely, very, very rewarding.”

Watch the video above for more from the cast about the legacy of Star Trek and what’s to come on Prodigy.

When the animated series returns for the rest of its first season, as the hopeful crew makes their way toward Starfleet, their dreams are threatened when they discover the U.S.S. Protostar harbors a weapon designed to tear the United Federation of Planets apart. To make matters worse, the U.S.S. Dauntless is on a manhunt for the Protostar as the real Vice Admiral Janeway is eager to uncover what happened to her missing former First Officer Chakotay. With these two ships on a collision course and destruction on the horizon, the fate of the Alpha Quadrant hangs in the balance.

Star Trek: Prodigy, Returns, Thursday, October 27, Paramount+