'Star Trek: Prodigy' Trailer: An Animated 'Trek' For The Next Generation Of Fans

Set phasers to stun, because this one's for the kiddos.

Paramount+ debuted the official teaser trailer for Star Trek: Prodigy, the first Trek series for younger audiences. The series will follow a crew of teenage alien misfits who discover a Starfleet ship and commandeer it for their own use. They have no idea what Starfleet is, but over the course of their adventures, they will learn just as much as any Academy grad.

In their Comic-Con@Home virtual panel, Paramount+ gave all of the latest details about Star Trek: Prodigy. The teaser trailer introduces us to the characters from the series and gives us our first glimpse of their stolen starship, the U.S.S. Protostar. It also gives us a hint about why the kids steal the ship: they want to get away from their home in the sticks. If that's not relatable, I don't know what is.

The crew of the ship is made up of aliens Dal (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), Zero (Angus Imrie), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), and Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas). They will be guided by a hologram of Captain Janeway, the former captain of Voyager, voiced by Kate Mulgrew.

The series was created by Emmy Award-winning producers Kevin and Dan Hageman, best known for their work on Trollhunters and Ninjago. It is being produced by CBS Studios' new animation arm, Eye Animation Productions, alongside Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Ben Hibon (the art director for the game Heavenly Sword) will direct and serve as creative lead of the new animated series.

This is the first Star Trek series to not focus on a Starfleet crew (unless you include Picard, but those characters are mostly former Starfleet). It's a genius move, because younger audiences can learn about the complex world of Starfleet as the characters do. Instead of assuming the audience will have built-in knowledge of previous Star Trek entries, they're going to start from scratch. Star Trek can be notoriously challenging to get into, but Prodigy might help create a whole new generation of fans.

Mulgrew was initially hesitant to return to Trek, but saw the series as an opportunity to reach an untapped audience.

"How thrilling to be able to introduce to these young minds an idea that has elevated the world for decades?" she said at New York Comic Con last year. "To be at the helm again in that way is going to be deeply gratifying in a brand new way for me."

Star Trek: Prodigy will premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. this fall.