Kate Mulgrew almost turned down Star Trek return

Kate Mulgrew returns to Star Trek: Prodigy later on this year.

When Star Trek: Prodigy first came calling, asking Kate Mulgrew to reprise her role as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the producers didn’t get an immediate yes. Mulgrew loved the character she’d portrayed for seven seasons on Star Trek: Voyager and told Radio Times that [Janeway] lives in her, and playing the captain was a significant part of her professional life. So she wasn’t sure she wanted to return to the character.

Mulgrew discussed the possibility with her friends and her counsel, and they all unanimously told her she had to bring back Captain Janeway, (and now Admiral Janeway as well) if only for one reason—because of the children. No other Star Trek show had been directed at children, and Mulgrew didn’t know how the franchise had managed to leave the kids out of the equation.

"“How is it that we’ve managed to leave them out? I don’t know. Do you know? Nobody’s going to grasp this philosophy, this ideology, more readily than the little sponge-imagination of the five-year-old, six-year-old, seven-year-old child.”"

Kate Mulgrew projected that Star Trek: Prodigy was going to be a hit.

And she wasn’t wrong. The animated series received an order for an additional ten episodes of the first season and was renewed for a second season as well. And there’s one more thing Mulgrew predicted, that the co-stars of Prodigy may just find themselves connected to the world of Star Trek for the rest of their lives just like she has. Mulgrew explains it as the gift that keeps on giving as the fanbase nefver dies.

Star Trek has been around for over 55 years. Needless to say, it’s doubtful the franchise is going to fade away. There are too many stories left to be told and too many fans waiting to watch them.