Alex Kurtzman hopes animated Star Trek series will appeal to younger fans

Following the cancellation of Star Trek, the next project in the young franchise turned out to be an animated series which reunited most of the original cast. The series ran for just two seasons and is surprisingly the only time that the franchise ventured into the realm of animation, but that is soon about to change. We already know that Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty) is developing a half-hour animated comedy titled Star Trek: Lower Decks, but Alex Kurtzman told THR that there are more animated Star Trek projects in the works as well, one of which he's hoping will appeal to a younger audience.

I go back to my childhood and Luke Skywalker, the [Star Wars] farm boy who looks out at the twin suns of Tatooine and imagines his future. Trek never gave me that. Trek was always fully formed adults, already in Starfleet and people who have decided who they are. And it never was aspirational that way. It's important to me to find a way to go back and reach younger kids in a way that Trek should and never really has.

Even with plenty of Star Trek projects in development, Kurtzman aims to keep the "soul and spirit" of the franchise intact as well as explore different perspectives. When it comes to the animated projects, Kurtzman is also hoping that each will be visually distinctive. "There's other animated things that we're building that are an entirely different perspective and an entirely different tone [from Lower Decks]," Kurtzman said. "What's exciting about it is not only looking at each animated series as what's the different tone, but what's the different technology we can apply to these things so that visually they're entirely different?" In addition to Star Trek: Lower Decks and the other more kid-friendly series, CBS All Access have also ordered two more installments of Star Trek: Short Treks which will debut after Star Trek: Discovery has wrapped up its second season in the spring. Unlike the first four episodes of Short Treks, both of these new episodes will be animated.