Star Trek Prodigy: Why Kate Mulgrew Resurrected Janeway

With the upcoming Star Trek: Prodigy animated series arriving on the Paramount+ streaming service later in 2021, a major piece of the Star Trek universe will be in play once again. Kate Mulgrew is returning to the franchise, reprising her Star Trek: Voyager role as Captain Janeway for the first time since the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis.

Appearing during the show's Comic-Con 2021 panel, the actress explained exactly why she believed now was the right time to make her highly-anticipated return to the universe. "When this was proposed to me, some time ago, after a moment's deliberation, I thought, 'What could be better than possibly handing this to the next generation? To a demographic that heretofore has not known anything about Star Trek--the beauty of it, the philosophy of it, the depth of it, the hope and the promise of it?'" Mulgrew explained. "And if there's any age group that's going to take this thing and embrace it with a wholeheartedness not seen before, it's the young kids. They're going to get it in a way that older people-due to perhaps a little life experience, a scintilla of cynicism--might not get entirely. But the young ones--5,10, 15 [years old]-- are going to embrace it with a guilelessness and a readiness and I think an emotional capacity, a component that's going to make them absolutely adore it."

While there is plenty of new Star Trek content to be found on Paramount+, from Discovery and Picard to the adult animated series Lower Decks and the upcoming Strange New Worlds, none of it is aimed specifically at kids. With the arrival of Prodigy, which includes Mulgrew playing a hologram version of her iconic character, that will all change.

Prodigy is set in the year 2383, post-Voyager, and follows a group of young aliens who come across an abandoned starship that they reclaim and use to go on adventures of their own. It debuts later this year on Paramount+. You can check out the first teaser trailer for the show above.