Once again we've said goodbye to a Star Trek series before we were ready for it to end. Star Trek: Lower Decks wrapped up its five season run on Thursday, December 19th, and while the show went out with a bang, it's not necessarily over. As we've heard before, it's never say never with Star Trek, and creator Mike McMahan is taking that to heart.
In an interview with Trekmovie, McMahan discussed his plans now that the series has wrapped. There are plenty more stories to be told with Boimler, Mariner, and the gang, and he's nowhere near ready to say goodbye to them. But he knows that now isn't the time to push Paramount. So, he's going to "regroup and take the victory lap for a second." And it's a well-deserved victory lap as Trekkies had their doubts about the animated comedy before it premiered. Five years later, the show signed off with hope for more.
McMahan noted that there are "things happening in the industry, not just at Paramount, but all over the place." So while he knows he wants to take another shot at creating more Lower Decks, he also knows now is not that time. But he will keep an eye out for when that time comes, saying "then when the industry and Paramount seems to kind of be in a place where Lower Decks can pop back again, I’m going to make a hard push to get to do whatever we can get – movie, more episodes, a movie. More episodes, a movie and a live-action spinoff? Who knows?"
So for those of us who are disappointed to see the ending of Lower Decks, we should take into consideration that this may just be a "for now" ending. We didn't think we'd ever see Captain Picard or Captain Janeway after their series ended, but those dreams came true. Yes, we had to wait a long time on those, but Paramount is at a time when it's bringing back legacy characters and putting them into more Star Trek series. So while it cancelled Lower Decks, there's a good chance, it will be open to bringing back the crew of the Cerritos eventually.