Star Trek: Prodigy fans given brief hope as series Blu-rays sell out

Star Trek: Prodigy fans may have some developing hope as Blu-ray sets sell out.

Star Trek: Prodigy is being shopped around, hoping for someone to pick up the series and its unfinished second season. If someone does pick them up, the show can be finished and may be renewed for a third season. It was a good show, with solid numbers that, according to some metrics, surpassed Strange New Worlds.

But Paramount+ canceled it because it could make more money on the show as a tax write-off than it could if it drew a strong audience and sold merchandise. Paramount+ is shopping the show around, and the hope is that the series can find another home. But for another outlet to be interested, they’ll have to see that the show can be profitable for them.

This is why Prodigy co-producer Aaron Waltke suggested that fans buy merchandise for the series. If fans are purchasing merchandise, the rights holders of the show will likely get some of that money, thus enticing them to pick up the show. If they know that a show can generate money from airing the show (be it commercials or subscriptions), plus a decent return on merchandise, another provider will be more willing to take a chance on it.

After all, a good portion of every franchise that is pumped out relies on merchandise. A film or series could be very popular but if the corresponding merchandise merchandise available for that item doesn’t meet the standards that it needs to, that film or series may be canceled regardless of how good or popular it was. Why? Because it still lost money.

So Prodigy fans should be cautiously optimistic, as DailyStarTrek news is reporting that the show has sold out of its Blu-rays

Star Trek: Prodigy Blu-rays are currently sold out

This isn’t a guarantee that Star Trek: Prodigy is saved just because fans bought the Blu-rays, but it is a sign that fans are rallying behind the show. It’s a small victory but an important one. The more merchandise a fandom buys, the more willing some are going to be to pick it up.

Smaller outlets than Paramount+ may not need to hit the same threshold to make money on a project. With the mounting debt, the mass layoffs, and the sizeable cancelations of Paramount+, it’s easy to see that the streaming service is in serious trouble. They need these tax breaks from canceled shows, in part, because they don’t have the subscriber base yet that they claimed.

We can go into the reasons why, but that’s not important right now.

What is important is realizing that a smaller streaming service, or a healthier one like Hulu, may be in a better position to take on Prodigy, knowing that the turnout is lower than other properties, but that it can still turn a profit.

When you’re someone like Hulu, who isn’t falling in on themselves like others are, you don’t need a show to make X amount of profit, you just need them to generate a profit, which Prodigy can likely do.