Star Trek: Prodigy won’t feature the “real” Kathryn Janeway.
Fans who were hoping for some Kathryn Janeway lore exploration in the upcoming Star Trek: Prodigy series will be greatly disappointed. While the woman who played Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, Kate Mulgrew, is coming back to the universe of Star Trek, it’s actually not as the same character fans have become accustomed to seeing her as.
Speaking to RT’s Dennis Miller (via TrekMovie.com), Mulgrew revealed that her character is in fact not the original Janeway, saying;
"But in Prodigy—this new animated series—five kids are incarcerated on an obscure planet in an uncharted part of the galaxy. And they escaped from their imprisonment and race across the planet to find a defunct starship buried in the sand of the of the planet’s surface. They go in and of course the prison guards are coming after them. And they can’t get it up and the shields won’t run or the thing won’t do… And suddenly somebody hits a button and [hologram startup sound] “Hello, kids. I see you’re a little bit stuck here. Can I help you out?” And it’s Captain Janeway in a holographic form."
Hologram Kathryn Janeway is a thing.
It’s a peculiar move, to promote the return of Janeway to the franchise, but it not being the actual Janeway. Perhaps the real Janeway will make an appearance at some point in the show, but at this point, anything is really in play.
It’s understandable but still a bit mildly disappointing. Part of the appeal wasn’t just getting Mulgrew as Janeway back on screen, but to also advance the Janeway character and share more of her personal life with the audience. Where has she been for all these years? What has she been doing? Did she ever reconnect with her old boyfriend? There are so many lingering questions that sure, maybe the show wasn’t ever going to explore, but would’ve been nice to see something of the kind be brought up.
It’s a bit of a change but one that won’t affect the end game too much. The kids who are going to be watching this show are more than likely not going to know who Janeway is to start, so maybe that was their rationale. Who knows?