The Big Picture

Collider’s Sam Coley sat down with the cast and crew of
Star Trek: Prodigy
at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con.
Cast members tease potential character arcs and romances, as relationships evolve in Season 3.
The Hageman brothers connect
Prodigy
to the greater
Star Trek
universe and reveal an alternate ending to the show.

Bringing back familiar faces and introducing us to an array of new ones, Star Trek: Prodigy has been hailed for its beautiful storytelling that captures the essence of the franchise. Season 2 saw a memorable 20-episode run this year, as the stories of younger characters like Dal (Brett Gray) and Gwyn (Ella Purnell) are woven with cast members from series like Star Trek: Voyager. Season 2 also saw Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway step into the limelight, as her search for Chakotay (Robert Beltran) becomes one of the central conceits of the season.

As such, at the 2024 San Diego Comic Con, Collider’s Sam Coley sat down with Kate Mulgrew, Brett Gray and creators Dan & Kevin Hageman to talk about the characters, relationships and potential romances established during this season. They also tease potential conflicts and more heart-warming moments for future seasons, and how the end of Prodigy looked very different in the Hageman brothers’ minds when they set out to do the show. You can hear this from the crew themselves in the video above, or read the transcript below.

Star Trek: Prodigy A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy.Release Date October 28, 2021 Seasons 2 Showrunner Dan Hageman Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

COLLIDER: How has it been to see the fans rally so hard to bring this show back and get it saved and get Season 2 out there, so people can see it?

KATE MULGREW: That was pretty moving. I was really impressed by that loyalty, but there’s no fan base like this in the world. So, when they flew that little plane over Netflix and Netflix picked up on their cue, I was absolutely delighted. It needs to be picked up; it needs to go on. It’s so great. These guys are geniuses.

BRETT GRAY: I know I wanted to piggyback off of what you were saying.

MULGREW: Piggyback? Oh my God.

GRAY: It’s new lingo. [All laugh]

MULGREW: What did you want to say?

GRAY: All of that. You really ate that and left no crumbs.

You’re also following in the footsteps of the original series, which also got cancelled and brought back. [It’s really] amazing.

MULGREW: But I don’t understand it. Do you?

No, not at all.

MULGREW: Well, what do you think is going on?

I don’t know.

MULGREW: There are no creatives as superb as these two guys in all of Hollywood. I think it deserves it, because the audience is vast. It’s not just children, it’s their mothers and their grandmothers. And I think that’s the thrilling aspect, the most thrilling aspect of it.

Dal Is Not Ready To Be a Captain in ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’
Image via Paramount/Netflix 

Brett, Dal goes on such an incredible journey this season and I think it’s a relatable one for a lot of people. Can you talk a bit about his arc and finding that maybe the captain’s chair is not where he’s needed?

GRAY: At first it was hard for me, I definitely will have to say. Thinking about it when they first told me I was like, ‘Oh man, that kind of sucks.’ But looking back on it and seeing who Dal is now and what I think he needs as a character, I think this is actually perfect. I think Gwyn is ready. I think he cares about Gwyn more than probably anybody. I think in order to be a great leader, you have to learn how to follow as well. And I think that it’s Dal’s turn to see what it’s like to be a member of the team as opposed to leading the team, because he’s not always prepared anyway. So, I think it’ll be really good for him, and I’m very proud of his arc and where he’s going.

KEVIN HAGEMAN: We want this to be the first chapter for Dal’s arc. We want more seasons. We want to see him grow up and become a captain and become a man.

MULGREW: Wait a minute, this is fascinating. Grow up and become a man? How are you going to do that?

GRAY: Well, he’s purple. So, I don’t know. And he does have a, what do we call it? A dangler?

MULGREW: A dingle dangle!

GRAY: Dingle dangle. I mean, he hasn’t even named his species or anything yet.

MULRGEW: Well then, he’s not a man.

GRAY: He’s a humanoid… He’s going to become an adult.

MULGREW: There you go.

Is Romance Brewing Between Dal and Gwyn in ‘Prodigy?’

Something I really enjoyed this season was the sort of parallel between Dal and Gwyn and Janeway and Chakotay and sort of lining those two relationships up. So, can you guys talk about textualizing the parallels between those two?

MULGREW: Romance, is that what you’re talking about?

I mean, I enjoyed it both ways. Either way.

MULGREW: You need to be on this show. I was saying to these guys, as long as there’s tension maintained and maybe a line not crossed. Just saying, guys, but the tension is high and is sustained. That’s what keeps the audience really involved. Don’t you agree?

GRAY: Cross the line.

MULGREW: I mean, what’s going to happen with you and Gwyn?

GRAY: We need to cross the line.

MULGREW: God only knows… [All laugh]

GRAY: I would love to see them in a relationship in this team. What that does to the dynamic and also them finding love in themselves for the first time. I think it would be really cool to see them at the same time as they’re also in a larger mission. I think the stakes would raise even more. I think it would be dope.

MULGREW: But I did ask this, and I am seriously asking it. How long can you keep that up? There’s a story here to tell. You can’t keep that romance alive forever. Somebody’s got to die or suffer, right?

DAN HAGEMAN: Relationships evolve.

There [can be] conflict in an established relationship.

‘Prodigy’ Could Have Had an Alternate Ending
Image via Paramount/Netflix

KEVIN HAGEMAN: What I will say, when we were working on the relationship of Dal and Gwyn and realizing that they were going to go and save Chakotay, we just felt like what an amazing symmetry that is, where these two get to see that and Dal learns from Chakotay that being a number one is amazing. You don’t have to be a captain.

DAN HAGEMAN: And I want to add like we have things that we’re learning about Star Trek. I remember early on in the story process, we imagined two chairs next to each other, Captain Dal and Captain Gwyn, and we thought it’s a beautiful ending. And then, one of our consultants is like that’s a horrible idea. The way they disagreed was like a photon torpedo was coming their way.

KEVIN HAGEMAN: Imagine a battleship, and you had two captains declaring to turn left to turn right. Engage, don’t engage, like what it would be? It would be terrible.

MULGREW: But a breeding ground for conflict and tension.

Captain Janeway’s Relationships May End With Tragedy
Image via Paramount/Netflix 

I love the journey that Janeway goes on this season and doing all that work to get Chakotay back, and then just when you think she’s retiring, this big catastrophic thing happens that brings her back into the fold. Can you talk a bit about her arc and what you’d like to see in a third season?

MULGREW: I’d like to see a third season. Let’s be very clear about that. I think it would be very interesting to follow this relationship with Janeway and Chakotay. And we also have the Doctor involved. So, we’ve got two of my old pals, Robert Beltran and Bob Picardo. See where you can go with it. Perhaps I like tragedy. I like a little tragedy with my soup.

DAN HAGEMAN: Someone’s got to go down.

MULGREW: But I don’t know. I mean, where could you go with Janeway?

KEVIN HAGEMEN: The death of Janeway?

MULGREW: What did you say? [Everyone laughs] The great thing is infinite possibilities. Star Trek at its finest. And these guys are going to take us there.

Speaking of that ending and tying into Picard Season 1, I cried through the whole finale, and then we got to that ending, and I was like, if I don’t get Season 3, I’m going to be so upset.

DAN HAGEMAN: It’s love turns to anger!

‘Prodigy’ Season 3 Will See the Kids Grow Up Together
Image via Paramount+

So, I’m not going to say if we get Season 3, I’m going to say when we get Season 3, what can fans expect from the balance of dealing with the catastrophic fallout of the attack on Mars?And then the new exciting journey that the kids are going off on and exploring this new pilot program?

KEVIN HAGEMAN: It’s a dark time for the Federation, we realize, and we wanted to get our characters out of that. I think one of the major things that we do want to see is that we want to grow up with these kids. When we get our Season 3, it’s going to take a little time to make. These kids are going to grow up to see our actress for Rok-Tahk, Rylee [Alazraqui], and she is going to be older. I don’t know how old she’s going to be, but she’ll probably be a teenage girl.

MULGREW: It’ll be a vocal development. Is that what you’re talking about?

KEVIN HAGEMAN: We would never recast and get another younger actress to continue playing. We want Rok-Tahk to grow up along with everyone, and to one day become a full-fledged adult Starfleet officer.

DAN HAGEMAN: I also want to add what we can expect thinking about Season 3. At the end of Season 2, these kids leave space and become a beacon of light for hope. And if we don’t believe that there’s something out there past Season 2, then why are we writing the show?

The Hageman Brothers on Stitching ‘Prodigy’ Into the Fabric of Star Trek

Building off that, I love the way that this season really weaves Prodigy into the fabric of the rest of the franchise. You guys reference Picard, you reference the Cerritos even at one point, which I really loved. Can you talk about adding in those little references and just really sort of stitching it into the fabric of Star Trek? Even if you’re not necessarily on Paramount anymore?

DAN HAGEMAN: We never wanted it to be the show that was the little brother or little sister of the rest. We wanted to sit at the adult table, and we wanted to make sure that our show works that way and that it is canon. So, we tied as many canon things into it so they couldn’t get rid of us.

KEVIN HAGEMAN: But we never did it just to showboat. We always made sure there was an organic reason for these characters or these little nods to be in there.

It works really beautifully. I love it so much.

MULGREW: It’s witty, it’s nuanced, right? And I think that the audience goes, “Oh, how exciting.”

DAN HAGEMAN: It shows how deep Star Trek can go. There’s a lot of deep cuts.

MULGREW: And the possibilities are infinite.

Lastly, a fun thing we’re asking people here at Comic-Con, if you were to dress up as a character, it doesn’t have to be a Star Trek character, it could be any character, and just roam around Comic-Con, what would you pick?

MULGREW: We have to dress up as somebody else?

You don’t have to.

MULGREW: Cleopatra

GRAY: Captain Janeway.

DAN HAGEMAN: We had the perfect idea for Comic-Con today. It’s a guy who has a sign that says, “line starts here,” and then people will start lining up behind you, waiting for someone. And you get a picture of how big your costume is: the whole line.

Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming now on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix