Above: Kevin Hageman, Ben Hibon, Dan Hageman, and Brett Gray.
(Photo: Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Paramount+)
We’re just over a month away from the long-awaited return of Star Trek: Prodigy, finally blasting back to Paramount+ on October 27!
During September 8th’s Star Trek Day event we had the opportunity to chat with series lead Brett Gray and the show’s creative leads — Kevin and Dan Hageman, and director Ben Hibon — to learn what’s coming next for the Protostar crew.
After ten months away, there’s a lot to look forward to!
TREKCORE: What can fans look forward to when Prodigy returns next month?
KEVIN HAGEMAN (Executive Producer): As people have seen in the first ten episodes, our show starts off sort of outside Federation space; outside of everything you know of Star Trek. With each episode, we get closer and closer, deeper and deeper in.
These next ten episodes are going to become even more Trek, and I think people are going to love that.
BRETT GRAY (“Dal”): The first half of the season was the part of the story where the characters were discovering themselves and becoming a crew. Now we’re going to start to dig into who these characters are — in their past, but also who they are GOING to be and what their roles are going to be in the team.
I think it’s going to be cool to watch the obstacles they will have to face as they are coming into their own as a group — instead of just individuals.
BEN HIBON (Director / Executive Producer): We’re all part of a family, right? And Prodigy is trying to capture all the different aspects: the tensions, the conflicts, embracing each other, believing in each other… all of those good things. It speaks to all ages, and to people with different backgrounds.
TREKCORE: And now the Protostar is on the run from the real Admiral Janeway — and they can’t even explain themselves to her!
GRAY: It’s really smart. What better way to set up conflict then to not allow the people who stole a Starfleet ship to speak to Starfleet!
It’s a lot of show-and-tell, as opposed to talk-and-tell — so it’s going to be great to watch our crew really figure out how to navigate this world without being able to contact people, or even being able to know about what Admiral Janeway wants in general. It’s like playing darts, but blindfolded!
TREKCORE: So how did Billy Campbell become involved in the series, bringing back his Okona character after such a long time?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Very early on in the writers room, we were talking about the “greatest hits,” the characters we love. As a family show, we like the colorful characters, and he was pretty outrageous, that Okona!
We fell in love with the thought of what Okona would be like some years down the road, living this outrageous life…
GRAY: It’s showing where the Prodigy crew fit within the larger Star Trek universe. Dal and Okona have a very good, fun relationship that I think people will enjoy — and they learn a lot from each other. I can’t wait for everyone to experience that. It was fun being shady!
DAN HAGEMAN (Executive Producer): And Billy Campbell actually had a lot to say! He was like, “Man, give me an eyepatch! Give me some heft!”
KEVIN HAGEMAN: “Make my belly a little bigger!”
DAN HAGEMAN: Those were Billy’s words — and we were like, “Hell yeah!”
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Yeah, “Let’s do it!” Okona’s little over the hill.
TREKCORE: Meanwhile, real-life Billy Campbell’s as fit as a fiddle.
KEVIN HAGEMAN: He is. He’s a very handsome man.
TREKCORE: Will there be other surprises people can look forward to?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Oh, there are a lot of surprises… that we can’t talk about!
DAN HAGEMAN: We chose this clip to preview because something’s happening to Murf…
TREKCORE: Yeah, what’s going on with Murf!? Are we going to learn about his Original Series connection?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Yes! In Episode 11! It is a deep, DEEP dive. I think we only saw ONE person on Twitter guess it.
TREKCORE: Before you go, is there anything you can tell us about the Star Trek: Prodigy — Supernova game?
DAN HAGEMAN: It’s coming out in October and it’s beautiful, everything we’ve seen.
KEVIN HAGEMAN: I just saw some game footage, and it reminded me that not only do you get our actors’ voices in there — no soundalikes, you’ll be hearing Kate Mulgrew as Janeway, Brett as Dal, Ella Purnell as Gwyen, and all the great characters — but they’re also using music from Nami Malumad, our composer.
They modeled the look of it after what Ben did on the series, so when I’m looking at that game, it feels like you’re playing the show.
DAN HAGEMAN: I know it’s been hard for people — the long wait between episode 10 and episode 11 — so when they have to wait longer after episode 20, they can play the video game!
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return on Thursday, October 27 to Paramount+ in the United States, Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the UK; the series is said to air “later in the year” in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland.