The official confirmation from CBS All Access of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has fans (myself included) excited to see Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck reprise the roles of Captain Pike, Number One and Science Officer Spock respectively. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the spin-off series is some way off.

In the meantime, Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated series from Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty), is coming to CBS All Access later this year.

SlashFilm spoke to McMahan about the animated series and not turning it into a parody of the beloved franchise. Here's an extract from the interview:

“I’m a huge Star Trek fan, and nobody needs a Star Trek comedy that made fun of Star Trek or punched down on Star Trek, nor was I interested in doing that that. I was interested in writing a Star Trek that could be canon, that follows the rules of other Star Trek shows that I loved, and has everything that you love about Star Trek, including the way you tell stories. But I’m a comedy writer. I’m never gonna write a serious Star Trek, so the way that we handled it is it’s on a ship that isn’t the capital ship. It’s not about the bridge crew. It’s about the lowest officers on that ship. But when we’re breaking stories for the lower decks, every episode also has a proper Star Trek episode that’s happening to the bridge crew, and our lower deckers aren’t involved in it. However, you can’t have a big sci-fi thing happening on a starship and not have it effect them because that’s their whole world. So if you’re watching Lower Decks, you’re getting a full Star Trek episode from the perspective of people who are having their own social and emotional stories and their own sci-fi stories, but they just aren’t on the bridge. They don’t have the information the bridge is getting, and they don’t have the responsibility.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks is expected to premiere later this year on CBS All Access. It's unclear whether the spin-off will stream on Amazon Prime or Netflix outside the US.