Star Trek: Lower Decks Movie Teased By Series Creator

Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan teases a movie about the bold crew of the USS Cerritos.

The future of Star Trek movies is a hot topic among fans, especially coming out of San Diego Comic-Con. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the writers of Paramount Skydance's Star Trek movie known to be in development, spoke guardedly about what could be the next theatrical flick set in the final frontier. They hinted that it would be a new take on Star Trek unrelated to prior TV shows or movies that still honors the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's 60-year-old franchise.

On Bluesky, Mike McMahan responded to TrekMovie's post that links to their article about Jerry O'Connell at San Diego Comic-Con. Representing Star Trek: Lower Decks at Star Trek's 60th anniversary Hall H panel, O'Connell said that McMahan "is not done" with Lower Decks, and that the cast is all on board for a possible resurrection of the beloved animated series. For his part, Mike dropped a tantalizing tease: "I need to figure out a Lower Decks movie." See McMahan's post below:

Naturally, McMahan's post galvanized his followers and Star Trek: Lower Decks fans. Mike began joking about the theoretical Lower Decks movie:

Another fan asked about "how long the glamour shot flyby sequence of the Cerritos is going to be?", referencing the lovingly expansive shots of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which Star Trek: Lower Decks winked at in their season 1 movie parody, "Crisis Point." Mike replied:

Perhaps the funniest fan suggestion was Jack Quaid's Lt. Brad Boimler fighting his identical clone, played by Tom Hardy. Of course, Hardy played Shinzon, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) clone, in Star Trek: Nemesis. Mike says:

Star Trek: Lower Decks ended in December 2024 after five seasons. Like every other Star Trek series on Paramount+, Lower Decks' cancellation was due to Paramount Global's sale to Skydance Media. The new owners, Paramount Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison, have nebulous plans for the Star Trek franchise. In the short term, making new Star Trek theatrical movies is the studio's priority.

Recently, Mike McMahan posted that he had at least "two more seasons" of ideas for his dearly departed Star Trek comedy. McMahan listed some of what potentially could have been episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks seasons 6 and 7. These include the USS Cerritos going to the Delta and Gamma Quadrants, more stories about fan-favorite characters like T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), and meeting "a weirdly nice leftover Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs)."

Any or all of Mike McMahan's ideas could be worked into a theoretical Star Trek: Lower Decks movie, in lieu of the TV series being relaunched on Paramount+ or, possibly, another streaming service or network. Other sci-fi animated series, notably Futurama, have proven to have extra lives beyond FOX, it's original home. It's unclear, however, whether Lower Decks can be shopped to another streamer. For now, Paramount+ is content to host all five existing seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

The saving grace of Star Trek: Lower Decks is that, as an animated series (or potential movie), the characters never age. Lower Decks' cast, including Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, and Jerry O'Connell, would gladly return to voice their Starfleet heroes. Meanwhile, even if it's just a spec script, hopefully, Mike McMahan isn't kidding about writing a Star Trek: Lower Decks movie, which could be an ideal way to lead into a full-on relaunch.

All episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks are streaming on Paramount+.

Release Date 2020 - 2024-00-00

Writers Gene Roddenberry