After nearly a year since the show’s title was announced, and eight months since we learned of Kate Mulgrew’s participation, we’ve learned barely anything about the cast of characters set to lead the upcoming Nickelodeon/Paramount+ animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, a kid-targeted show set just a few years after the USS Voyager returned home.

That is… until today! Expanding upon the tantalizing character image released back in February, Paramount+ has just unveiled the names and backgrounds of Prodigy’s alien characters, along with the voice actors who will be bringing them to life when the show arrives “later this year.”

British actor Ella Purnell stars as Gwyn, a 17-year-old member of the Vau N’ Akat species, a new race to Star Trek, who was raised on her father’s bleak mining planet — and grew up dreaming of exploring the stars.

Purnell was most recently seen in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead which landed on Netflix earlier this year, and starred in the two-season run of Sweetbitter on Starz.

Brett Gray stars as 17-year-old Dal — a purple alien whose race is not yet known — who fancies himself a maverick and holds strong onto his unwavering hope even in the toughest of times.

Gray currently stars as one of the leads on the Netflix coming-of-age series On My Block, and recently made guest appearances on When They See Us and Chicago P.D.

Always-energetic comedic actor Jason Mantzoukas stars as Tellarite teenager Jankom Pog, a species which has been part of Star Trek lore since the Original Series, with members of the argumentative race later taking on a prominent role during the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise.

At age 16, Pog loves a good argument like many of the Tellarites we’ve seen before, and regardless of his own opinion, he’ll always play ‘devil’s advocate’ for the sake of hearing all sides. (Many fans speculated this character would be a Talaxian — like Voyager’s Neelix.)

Mantzoukas has been seen in many high-profile television comedies including Brooklyn 99,The Good Place, and The League, and has performed many voice acting roles for shows like Big Mouth, Invincible, and American Dad!.

Angus Imrie stars as a member of another classic Star Trek race: Zero the Medusan, an energy-based life form whose species was introduced in 1968’s “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”

Medusans are non-corporeal and genderless, and are known to cause madness to any humanoid who would lay eyes on their natural form — so Zero wears a containment suit to protect those around them.

The British actor has perhaps most prominently appeared as Prince Edward in Netflix’s The Crown, with other recent guest appearances in Fleabag and the Batman prequel series Pennyworth.

Dee Bradley Baker stars as the sparkly Murf, an endearing, indestructible blob with curiously good timing and an insatiable appetite for ship parts.

Perhaps best known as the voice of Captain Rex (and all of the Empire’s other clone troopers) in the multitude of Star Wars animated television shows, the prolific actor also voices German man-turned-fish Klaus on American Dad!, Animal on the current run of Muppet Babies, as well as hundreds of other characters over his long career.

Lastly, young actor Rylee Alazraqui stars as the hulking Brikar Rok-Tahk, an unusually bright eight-year-old girl. While a bit shy, Rok doesn’t hold back when it comes to her love of animals.

At just 10 years old, Alazraqui has only been in the business for a short time, and to date has most notably contributed voices to Cartoon Network’s Summer Camp Island. As for her character, Rok-Tahk may be the most interesting member of this alien crew, as her race actually began life among the pages of 1990s-era Star Trek print storytelling.

The Brikar (or Brikarian) species was originally created by author Peter David in his 1993 young-adult Star Trek: Starfleet Academy tale Worf’s First Adventure, and later incorporated the race into his the original novel series Star Trek: New Frontier.

Zak Kebron, the Brikar who originated in Worf’s First Adventure and later served as New Frontier security chief aboard the USS Excalibur, was an extremely strong rock-like creature who was raised in a high-gravity environment (like the other members of his species). Eventually, Kebron lost his rocky appearance as he matured, a natural change part of Brikar development.

While it’s hard to tell from this early description how much of that novel-based Brikar alien depiction will carry over to television, as the character was depicted in different designs as Kebron appeared on different book covers and in New Frontier comics, but the young Rok-Tahk certainly appears “rocky” enough to bring the species into the television world.

Of course, rounding out the cast is returning Star Trek: Voyager series lead Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway, who in this show will be voicing a hologram of the USS Voyager captain — an “emergency training hologram” who will be the sole Starfleet representation on the unfamiliar ship that the young aliens find while escaping prison in the Delta Quadrant.

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This breakdown of the cast and animated crew isn’t the only thing that Paramount+ is showing off today, as they’ve also released a few stills from Star Trek: Prodigy today — giving us a feel for the animation style and cinematography of the upcoming show.

JUNE 17 UPDATE: Four more images, showing some of the beautiful digital landscapes from Prodigy, were released today.

This animated art design — with lush coloring and a dazzling depth of field — clearly puts Star Trek: Prodigy light-years away from the animated styles of not only the classic 1970’s Animated Series, but this decade’s Star Trek: Lower Decks as well.

While there’s still no air date past “later this year” for Prodigy, this infusion of new information must mean we’re going to see some footage from the upcoming series sometime soon — and with San Diego Comic Con just over a month way, that’s when we’re thinking the next big news day will come for this animated show.

Star Trek: Prodigy will debut on Paramount+ in the United States sometime in late 2021 before later airing on Nickelodeon; the show will also be available on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada.

Additional international availability has not yet been announced.