Brief update on Prodigy S2 production from writer Aaron J. Waltke (@[email protected])
Brief update on Prodigy S2 production from writer Aaron J. Waltke (@[email protected])
For those asking where we are with Season 2 of #StarTrekProdigy: - We are continuing production on the final episodes now. - Writing, voice recording, and animatics for all 20 are completed. Animation nearly so. - Episodes 201 - 210 are finished / locked. The rest, by January.
Then, a small window after that where the episodes get closed captioning, foreign translations and marketing looks before going to air — wherever that may be.
More on that later hopefully, but such deals are very slow moving — there’s a lot to work out. Stay tuned!
I didn't even know about this show until news came down about it being cancelled... Figures. I started watching it and already like it more than Lower Decks. Really hoping they find a new home!
It was originally targeted for Nickelodeon, but children’s linear television viewing has dropped severely since 2017.
Worse, Paramount’s US cable carriage deal with Comcast would have required Paramount to wait at least 6 months to stream after a Nickelodeon premiere. So, they flipped it to run first on Paramount+. The show got decent views, but didn’t necessarily get to the target family and kids. Paramount seems to be reducing its focus on reaching kids as a streamer.
With Nickelodeon tanking further in the pandemic, it’s too expensive for them so the cable-led option is still a nonstarter.
I’ve been trying to think of which non-Disney streamer has enough of a kids and family audience globally to make Prodigy both profitable and reach the target demographic.
Distributor Wildbrain Spark (formerly DHX) has had a deal with Paramount+ and PlutoTV to carry some of its extensive kids library, so they could reverse and have Paramount license to them.
Wildbrain Spark (run principally through YouTube) has 168 million subscribers globally and 21 million unique views monthly in the US alone. They tend to skew younger, but may be extending into the older school age and middle school market.
We only found it because I searched “Star Trek” in Stremio. Literally no whisper before or after that until I heard about the cancellation.
So happy that we are getting these updates and bits of positive news.
I really want to be able to series 2 at least… but I wish it could continue properly, my little boys are too young for the show at the moment but I’d love to be able to watch it together and introduce them to Star Trek when they’re that little bit older.
“Such deals are very slow moving…”
Understandable but still very unfortunate.
Meanwhile, Paramount will be facing a major gap in its Star Trek releases in either winter 2023-24 or following Discovery season 5’s run - like both.