Star Trek: Lower Decks Cartoon Series Announced

Joining Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard (or whatever the name turns out to be) is the second cartoon series in Trek history with Star Trek: Lower Decks. The half-hour animated comedy comes from Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan with a "focus on the support crew on one of Starfleet's less important ships." No other details were revealed so the the look of the series, the time setting, cast, ship, etc is a bit of ways off.

"Mike won our hearts with his first sentence: 'I want to do a show about the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end.' His cat's name is Riker. His son's name is Sagan. The man is committed," said executive producer Alex Kurtzman in a release. "He's brilliantly funny and knows every inch of every 'Trek' episode, and that's his secret sauce: he writes with the pure, joyful heart of a true fan. As we broaden the world of 'Trek' to fans of all ages, we're so excited to include Mike's extraordinary voice."

In general the time to write a cartoon episode to finished product is about a year so even assuming work has already begun, this series hitting the air is probably late 2019 or spring 2020 at the earliest.