Star Trek: Prodigy Is Saved, Finds New Streaming Home
Star Trek: Prodigy has found a streaming home on Netflix. According to Deadline, the streaming service has rights to distribute the animated Star Trek series for the United States and the majority of international territories. In June, Paramount+ dropped the series as part of an effort to cut costs, following a trend among streamers like Disney+, who have been canceling original content.
After being canceled at Paramount+, Star Trek: Prodigy has officially been picked up by Netflix for more seasons.
A second season of Star Trek: Prodigy was already ordered at the time of the cancellation, leaving the production team scrambling to find a new streaming home even as they worked on completing this season. The move might have made financial sense for Paramount, but it was deeply unpopular with fans, who quickly began a campaign to save the series. The cancellation led to the creation of a petition, a trending hashtag, and even a banner flying over the offices of Amazon and Netflix.
The campaign to save Star Trek: Prodigy has led to an even closer relationship between the series’ creators and fans, and has caused a rush on Blu-rays of the first half of the first season. It also led to Star Trek: Prodigy figures and merchandise selling out across online retailers and manufacturers. While it is certainly wonderful news for fans that Star Trek: Prodigy has found a new streaming home, the fact that it had to has caused a great deal of bitterness toward Paramount.
The baffling back and forth between an apparent desire to host all Star Trek content and a willingness to let that same content leave its streaming service either temporarily or permanently has seemed to show confusion at Paramount about the best course of action with the Star Trek IP.
The irony of the fact that the recent Star Trek Day celebration was focused on Star Trek animation and yet barely mentioned Star Trek: Prodigy or, at times, left it out all together was a source of ire for many. While most Star Trek fans would greatly prefer all of Star Trek to be in one place, as Paramount+ repeatedly promised it would be, just being able to have access to the second season of the series is a reason for celebration.
Star Trek has been on Netflix before, but Paramount+ had moved all content in the franchise to its own streaming platform in a bid to focus the fandom there, boost its revenues, and maintain its control over Star Trek.
But Star Trek: Prodigy is not the first Star Trek property to move off Paramount+ since that time. At various times, several of the movies in the franchise have disappeared from the streamer after being rented out to other services like Max (then HBO Max).
The baffling back and forth between an apparent desire to host all Star Trek content and a willingness to let that same content leave its streaming service either temporarily or permanently has seemed to show confusion at Paramount about the best course of action with the Star Trek IP.
When Will Star Trek Be Available On Netflix?
For now, Star Trek: Prodigy is the only element of the franchise missing on Paramount+, with all the other series and movies available there. The first season of Star Trek: Prodigy, which had been released in several chunks on Paramount+, will be available on Netflix later this month.
Season 2 of the series is set to premiere next year, though it is not yet clear whether fans will have access to content like Prodigy-related extras and episodes of The Ready Room that had been available on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Prodigy is available in Canada via CTV.ca and the CTV App, and through SkyShowtime in Central and Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and the Nordics. The series, which is directed at younger viewers who are new to Star Trek, began on Nickelodeon alongside Paramount+, making Netflix its third home.
While fans are breathing a collective sigh of relief to see the series find a new streamer, many are surely hoping it will eventually migrate back to Paramount+ to keep the franchise together, though that seems unlikely to happen in at least the next few years.
