The Star Trek franchise is bigger than ever before as they have five shows that they are producing concurrently with two of them in animated format. There are fans who are wondering whether they will eventually have a crossover just like in the '90s although it seems impossible since they are set in different eras and in different formats.
However, during the recent Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Anson Mount announced that the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will feature a crossover with the Lower Decks animated series. The reveal was made when the latter's stars Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid crashed the portion of the panel.
The crossover episode will feature both live-action and animation where we will see Lower Decks' Ensign Beckett Mariner (voiced by Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (voiced by Quaid) join aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during the second season of Strange New Worlds. Franchise veteran Jonathan Frakes directed the episode.
Current Star Trek franchise architect Alex Kurtzman has previously expressed his interest in doing a crossover with some of the shows. This will be the first time that it has come into fruition and, in a spin that fans might not expect, they will do an animation and live-action hybrid.
While the announcement was interesting, it also comes with a lot of questions since Lower Decks is set in a different era and has a different tone. Unless it's a fantasy sequence or is a result of multiversal travel, they need to do a lot of explaining on how the crossover logically happens.
Nevertheless, it is still exciting for fans who love both shows and see the characters interact. Hopefully, it's going to be a great and satisfying story and it's curious to see what they have in store and why they decided to go in this direction.
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The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is slated to premiere next year on Paramount+ while the third season of Lower Decks will premiere on August 25.