Could Star Trek: Deep Space Nine return as an animated series?

With the recent success of the brief return to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Star Trek: Lower Decks, this question is being asked. 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans have been waiting for the characters that made this series phenomenal and unforgettable to return, hoping that Star Trek: The Next Generation wouldn’t be the only series that brought its characters back to the screen. Star Trek: Lower Decks gave fans a reason to hope when Nana Visitor, who portrayed Kira Nerys, and Armin Shimerman, who portrayed Quark, made guest appearances on the sixth episode of the third season of Lower Decks.

Screenrant recently pointed out that Lower Decks proved Deep Space Nine would work as an animated series, provided Avery Brooks comes back as Captain Sisko and Ira Steven Behr comes back as the showrunner. Those are two big ifs.

Ira Steven Behr and his team had already come up with ideas for season eight of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In the Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind, ideas for a season eight included Section 31’s nefarious plot against Bajor, the mysterious death of Captain Nog, which would most assuredly have led to an all-out hunt by the entire crew of Deep Space Nine, and finally, Captain Sisko’s return from his time with the Prophets. So clearly, Behr and his team aren’t out of ideas to pursue the series.

But would an animated series work? Most of the time, when you’re looking at animation, you’re thinking comedy, although Star Trek: The Animated Series didn’t go in that direction. That series didn’t last very long, but some pretty stellar episodes aired. And Captain Sisko has returned in a comic book series. So why couldn’t an animated series work for the crew of Deep Space Nine, especially when some of the actors have expressed interest in returning? Perhaps it’s time for fans to get vocal on social media to encourage Paramount+ to pursue this avenue. With the success of The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager characters in animation, there’s no reason to think this wouldn’t work.

What do you think? Would you watch an animated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series?