Picture: Paramount+
Star Trek: Prodigy won’t continue beyond the 40 released episodes, at least at Netflix. The streamer has passed on a new season, and its license for both seasons, which it now carries essentially exclusively, is ending.
As a quick refresher, Netflix picked up Star Trek: Prodigy in a surprise move over Christmas in 2023. It picked up season 1, which had just recently departed Paramount+, and announced it would carry the unreleased second season come mid-2024. Most regions of Netflix picked up the show, although it was not completely global. Major regions like Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom picked it up while regions like Canada did not. This is down to licensing restrictions, such as in France, where the series rights belong to France TV.
Featuring the voices of Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, and Rylee Alazraqui, the animated series continues to receive rave reviews. The story follows a ragtag crew of young adventurers who unite to evade a ruthless overlord upon discovering an abandoned Starfleet ship.
Speaking to TrekMovie.com upon the release of season 2 last summer, Dan and Kevin Hageman, the two creators of the show, were realistic about their expectations on a season 3 pickup. “We don’t know anything about season 3 yet. But what from what I see of Netflix when they do pick up shows for a season 3, which is very rare, it’s not about doing well, it has to do gangbusters,” said Kevin with Dan adding, “We’re happy with how we left things off at the end of the season 2. We feel like there’s a nice place to stop, but also a new adventure to pick up if we want to.”
They’re right, of course, and Star Trek: Prodigy didn’t make a significant impact when it did land. It missed the global weekly charts, and looking at the Netflix Engagement Reports, it didn’t catch fire. Per that report, covering viewing data from 2023 through 2024, the series picked up the equivalent of 3.4M views in total throughout that two-year period. For comparison, Blue Eye Samurai, which did get a rare animation renewal, picked up 20.5M views in the same period.
That, combined with the fact that the show isn’t even Netflix’s own property and that the original team behind it had long since disbanded, made its chances of renewal incredibly slim. With the shows set to depart in the coming months, Netflix has quietly ruled out any season 3 renewal chances.
Furthermore, our friends at Nickalive tipped us over the weekend to a Paramount document that states there are 40 episodes total and, more prominently, lists July 1st, 2024, as the premiere date of the “final season.”
When will Star Trek: Prodigy leave Netflix?
We’ve got even more bad news: the series may be departing Netflix imminently.
Our understanding is that the series will be leaving Netflix in two parts, with each season leaving 18 months after they were initially licensed. That means at the moment, the two seasons will be leaving on the following timeline:
- Season 1 will depart Netflix on June 24th, 2025
- Season 2 will depart Netflix on January 1st, 2026
Of course, Netflix and Paramount could arrange to renew the license, and we’ll keep you posted if that happens. As it stands, though, your time to watch both seasons is running out.
Netflix declined to comment for this post.
Star Trek: Prodigy is one of close to a dozen (if not more) animated series that are still awaiting official verdicts at Netflix. Last week, we revisited some of the biggest that are still awaiting renewal and suggested that many won’t be coming.
Are you disappointed that Netflix won’t be carrying Star Trek: Prodigy for much longer and that they opted not to renew the series for a third season?
