CBS All Access has revealed that its next Star Trek TV series will be the animated comedy Lower Decks, from Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan. It's been given a release date of August 6, with 10 episodes rolling out weekly every Thursday.
We expect that this means the wait for Star Trek: Discovery season 3 will be extended into later this year, since it's unlikely the streaming service will release two weekly entries from the Star Trek franchise at the same time. Unless CBS decides to make them overlap, which is possible, this probably means we won't see Star Trek: Discovery's return until October at the earliest.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is, as the name suggests, focused on the lower-level crew on the USS Cerritos, and it's set after the movie Star Trek: Nemesis (but before Picard). It's an adult animated comedy, and the first Star Trek animated series since 1973. There's no trailer for it, yet, but we're expecting something with an Adult Swim-style tone, based on McMahan's involvement and the visual style of the show. The voice cast includes The Boys' Jack Quaid.
It's unclear where Star Trek: Lower Decks will stream in the UK and Australia, but past seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard have released on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video respectively. Hopefully it'll land on one of those sooner rather than later.
CBS All Access has shown off the series' animation style in more detail. Here are a couple of images to give you an idea of what to expect:
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Which other new Star Trek series are in the works?
A lot of new Trek projects are on the way. As well as Discovery's third season and Star Trek: Picard season 2, a Discovery spin-off about Michelle Yeoh's Mirror Universe character Philippa Georgiou is in the works called Section 31.
Earlier this year, a new Enterprise-based series called Strange New Worlds was announced, too, focused on Captain Pike's era at the helm of the iconic Starship. That is also a Discovery spin-off.
On top of that, a kid-friendly animated show is coming to Nickelodeon, which doesn't have a name yet, though it's speculated the series will be called Star Trek: Prodigy.
Finally, one more unannounced live-action show is apparently in the works. We know this because executive producer of the franchise Alex Kurtzman revealed in January that two shows had yet to be announced. One was Strange New Worlds, but the other remains a mystery for now.
That's a lot of Star Trek.
