The Creator Of Star Trek: Lower Decks Is Launching A New Animated Sci-Fi Show
On to a new frontier.
It’s hard to make peace with the end of a new Star Trek show, especially after years without any Star Trek on the small screen at all — and especially when it comes to a great show like Lower Decks. The Trek franchise is always searching for a new corner of the final frontier to explore, but the animated comedy felt like the freshest addition to the world in decades. By focusing on characters who would likely be background features in any other Trek project, Lower Decks found a new sweet spot with an underdog story. Its cancellation in 2024 felt preemptive, not to mention disappointing: the show had so much potential, and even after five seasons, it didn’t seem to be slowing down.
Though creator Mike McMahan assured Inverse that he ended the show on his terms, more or less, it still felt bittersweet that it had to end at all. Fortunately, McMahan has landed on his feet with another animated project. He and his Solar Opposites co-producer, Dominic Dierkes, are reteaming with CBS Studios for a new futuristic sitcom — and it sounds a whole lot bleaker than Lower Decks ever got to be.
With Star Trek’s utopia behind him, McMahan is looking ahead to a slightly bleaker future.
CBS Studios and Prime Video are partnering to produce Odd Jobs, an adult animated comedy that sounds a lot like this generation’s answer to Futurama. “In Odd Jobs, the year is 2127,” the synopsis reads. “The world is an extreme late-stage capitalist hellscape. The show follows a reluctant team of gig-workers as they travel around the neo Midwest, doing the weirdest, most dangerous tasks the ODD JOBS app demands.”
The series, according to McMahan and Dierkes, is based on their harrowing (and, by the sound of things, darkly comedic) idea of the future. “While wandering through the wilderness, we accidentally stumbled through a portal and found ourselves hundreds of years in the future,” the duo said in a statement. “We witnessed bizarre and grotesque portents about where humanity is heading. Instead of acting on those warnings, we're thrilled to turn them into an animated show.”
At this stage of dystopia, it certainly feels like black comedy is the only course of action — but Odd Jobs will at least render the end of the world in style.
Titmouse, the animation house behind Lower Decks, as well as shows like Scavengers Reign, The Legend of Vox Machina, and Big Mouth, has been tapped to bring the series to life. It’s a great development for any fans of McMahan’s work: though Lower Decks is no more, his next take on the future should be just as engrossing.
