Of the new Star Trek shows launched on Paramount+, none seems to be more beloved than Star Trek: Lower Decks. And despite the fifth season being its last, we may get more in the form of spinoffs.
It was revealed earlier this year that the fifth season of Lower Decks would be its final season, a fact that absolutely no one was happy with but that the show’s creator and showrunner, Mike McMahan, says is something he prepared for. While McMahan has said he had years’ worth of ideas for the series, which is both a fantastic Star Trek show and a wonderful parody of them, Paramount+ decided to cancel the show, and McMahan knew this was a possibility. He told The ‘Verse Podcast (via Trek Movie) that he knew the fifth season could be the last, thanks to Paramount’s rocky situation and a general contraction of the streaming market, and he planned accordingly.
That is, of course, good news. The even better news, however, is that McMahan hints that this might not be the end of animated, comedic Star Trek. The showrunner strongly hinted that spinoffs are a possibility for Lower Decks and that he’s setting them up in this fifth season of the Star Trek show.
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“The ending of Season 5 it is the ending of a chapter that I knew I wanted to do,” he said. “There are things that happen in it… I’m being very careful… that are sort of setting up spinoffs and setting up backdoor pilots. There’s characters I’m introducing that you’ll see clearly I wanted to do more with.”
McMahan went on to discuss the possibility of Lower Decks returning in some other form, like movies or comics, but that seemed like wishful thinking rather than concrete plans. There’s also the possibility that Lower Decks gets sold off like Star Trek: Prodigy did to a streamer like Netflix. McMahan says he has no control over that, of course, but it is possible, and that means everyone watching Prodigy on Netflix is even more important for even the most remote possibility of getting more Lower Decks.
“I don’t want to get into any of that,” he said when discussing a possible jump to another streamer. “Listen, I don’t wear a tie, and that’s tie questions. What I would say is, these characters are like my heart and soul. I put all of myself into this show, I really really love it. And I’m always down to make more if the cards align.”
