In yet another blow to the conspiracy theorists out there — who have claimed for months, without evidence, that no international distributor was interested in the show — the good news fans around the world have been waiting for is finally here: Star Trek: Lower Decks has finally locked in plans to debut into international territories.

While we’ve known for months that the unexpectedly-early debut of Lower Decks this August resulted in a long delay on international distribution plans — series showrunner Mike McMahan explained in August that the CBS-managed US scheduling change (due to COVID-19 impact on Discovery‘s Season 3 debut) rocked their timetable — there’s no need to worry any longer.

“[The] reason you guys don’t know yet is squarely because of COVID… because the timelines for everything we’ve been doing for production have been completely thrown out.

A lot of what we’re doing [for ‘Lower Decks’] unexpectedly got shifted two months earlier, because they were juggling around schedules and stuff. A lot of the different groups in entertainment — when you shuffle that stuff around, they can’t move as fast as [we in production can].”

— Mike McMahan

Announced early this morning through The Hollywood Reporter, the animated Star Trek comedy series will debut on Amazon’s Prime Video service in multiple international regions on January 22, 2021.

Like Star Trek: Picard, the show will be exclusive to that service outside of the US (where it airs on CBS All Access) and Canada (airing on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave) — and the entire 10-episode first season will beam down to the UK and Europe, Japan, India, Australia, and New Zealand on January 22. (Hopefully additional territories will follow soon after.)

Star Trek: Lower Decks airs on CBS All Access in the United States, CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada — and will debut on Amazon’s Prime Video service January 22 for fans abroad. Season 2 of the animated series is expected in 2021.