Alex Kurtzman wants Star Trek to appeal to a younger demographic

In a new interview, Alex Kurtzman talked about all things Star Trek and specifically wanting the franchise to court younger fans.

For as long as many people can remember, Star Trek was always considered science-fiction for an older fan.

And in many ways Trekkers everywhere courted and even tried to maintain this image. They would say ”When you’re done with Star Wars we have some real science-fiction over here waiting for you.”

Condescending? Sure. But also pretty accurate.

There is no question that Star Trek is more of a thinking person’s science-fiction and Star Wars is more about explosions, space battles and if Han shot first. It’s the main reason why so many Trek fans have an issue with the Kelvin Timeline films, which they say “dumbed down” the franchise to appeal to younger fans.

Well, Emperor of the Terkverse Alex Kurtzman doesn’t think appealing to younger fans in necessarily a bad thing.

Kurtzman was recently interviewed for Deadline’s Crew Call podcast and he talked about everything going on with the ever expanding Trekverse. However, one of the more interesting exchanges came when they were talking about growing the Star Trek fanbase and that, if Kurtzman has his way, it will begin making fans of people far younger than the franchise has in the past.

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"What I can tell you is that ‘Trek,’ in general, finds people when they’re about between nine and twelve.It’s never reached younger than that; it’s never tried to, and to me that’s a hugely missed opportunity, especially because what you’re really trying to do is influence hearts and minds with really positive messages — messages about who we can be as a species and as people and what our future is. So why not start young, you know? And not for a cynical reason. Not because you know, hey, let some more toys, but because if you really want ‘Star Trek’ to reach people, then you’ve got to start young.And this is where I guess the ‘Star Wars’ influence on me really mattered, because as a kid at four years old, I could imagine myself starting up with a twin suns of Tattooine and wondering what my life was. ‘Trek’ didn’t give me that same thing — it gave me Wesley Crusher, it gave me different characters, but again, those are older characters.But we are definitely seeing just metric proof that the fan base is growing, and it’s growing younger — and yet, we’re keeping our current fans, and that’s great."

The recently announced animated show being developed for Nickelodeon is obviously an attempt to do just that. Which, if it will help grow Star Trek fandom beyond where it is today, everyone should be all for it.

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According to Kurtzman, the Nickelodeon show does in fact have a name, but he isn’t willing to reveal it just yet. He also notes that Nickelodeon has been very supportive of what they are trying to do and that while many of the characters will be new, we may see one or two we recognize.

Keep it here on Redshirts Always Die for more from Kurtzman’s interview throughout the week.

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