Star Trek: Lower Decks may include a few characters from The Next Generation

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Although the future of the STAR TREK franchise on the big-screen remains uncertain, there are plenty of projects in development on the small-screen side of things, one of which is Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated series from Rick & Morty writer Mike McMahan. The upcoming series will focus on "the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships" in the year 2380, which places it after the events of STAR TREK: NEMESIS.

Given its animated nature and place in the STAR TREK timeline, it's possible that a few familiar faces from that era could appear in the series, and Mike McMahan teased as much while speaking with Entertainment Weekly.

There are a lot of recognizable characters in the galaxy at that point. Next Gen is my favorite era. And as a huge Trek fan, I would definitely want to try to use some of them so that I could not only build out the world, but also work with some of my heroes. But I can't get more specific than that. You'll have to wait and see.

We've seen several characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation reprise their roles in Star Trek: Picard, but it would certainly be fun for different characters and actors to get the chance to relive the glory years in animated form. McMahan also confirmed that Lower Decks is definitely aimed at an adult audience. "It's definitely not a kids show, but only because it's a little bit more complex than a kid show would be," McMahan said. "The fun of Rick and Morty is that it breaks down sci-fi tropes and is told through Rick Sanchez, who has a very specific, chaotic, nihilistic lens. Lower Decks treats mythological sci-fi things just as important as a regular Trek show, while finding new stories to tell — just from a different angle. It's not disassembling mythological sci-fi things. It's treating them as important for everybody on the starship as it would be in a regular star Trek show." The first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is expected to debut on CBS All Access later this year.