New ‘Star Trek’ Animated Comedy Series Greenlit With ‘Rick And Morty’ Writer At The Helm
The first official Star Trek cartoon has been ordered by CBS All Access — with Emmy-winning Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan at the helm, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The show, titled Star Trek: Lower Decks will be a comedy centered “on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships.”
“Mike won our hearts with his first sentence: ‘I want to do a show about the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end,'” said executive producer Alex Kurtzman. “[McMahan’s] cat’s name is Riker. His son’s name is Sagan. The man is committed. He’s brilliantly funny and knows every inch of every Trek episode, and that’s his secret sauce: he writes with the pure, joyful heart of a true fan. As we broaden the world of Trek to fans of all ages, we’re so excited to include Mike’s extraordinary voice.”
“As a life-long Trekkie, it’s a surreal and wonderful dream come true to be a part of this new era of Star Trek. While Star Trek: Lower Decks is a half-hour, animated show at its core, it’s undeniably Trek — and I promise not to add an episode at the very end that reveals the whole thing took place in a training program,” McMahan added.
A #StarTrek Mission Update: New Trek animated series announced, Star Trek: Lower Decks #StarTrekLowerDecks ? https://t.co/yQwzhQ2XLT pic.twitter.com/aYczyHoT7i
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) October 25, 2018
McMahan, Heather Radin, Trevor Roth, and Katie Krentz are all executive producers on the upcoming project.
This series will take place in CBS’s new extended Star Trek universe and will join Star Trek: Discovery as well as an upcoming project where Sir Patrick Stewart will take up his mantle as Jean-Luc Picard once again.
McMahan is a massive fan of Star Trek, so much so that he started a Twitter account in 2011 where he would post episode plots from a fake season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. His comedic Twitter account was so popular that he was hired to write a reader’s guide of that fake season, called Star Trek: The Next Generation: Warped: An Engaging Guide to the Never-Aired 8th Season. He’s also a writer on the Star Trek: Short Treks series of shorts on CBS.
McMahan also has a vast amount of experience working on animated projects, being the head writer on the smash-hit ‘Rick and Morty’ along with co-creating and executive producing Solar Opposites, a comedy series that’s second season is airing on Hulu, with ‘Rick and Morty’ co-creator Justin Roiland.
