Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Nickelodeon Greenlights Animated Star Trek Series, HBO Orders Space Comedy from Veep Creator, and More

Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.

Boldly Skewing Younger: Nickelodeon has given the greenlight to a CGI-animated Star Trek series created and written by the brother team of Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters). Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout will produce the series and Variety gives the following description:

It follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation.

The series will be targeted to younger viewers in an attempt to introduce the franchise to a “younger generation around the world”. New Trek development has mostly been focused on the CBS All Access streaming service, but Nickelodeon is owned by Viacom which appears to be heading for a merger with CBS. Placing the new show on a younger-skewing network that has wider visibility gives the franchise the opportunity to bring on newer viewers that may not be familiar with the older shows.

Disney to Own Another Streaming Service? Disney already has its Disney+ streaming service on the way (debuting November 12th of this year), and the Mouse House may find itself as full owner of yet another streamer. Disney has had an ownership stake in Hulu for many years and became a majority partner when their buyout of the FOX entertainment properties finalized this year (AT&T has also sold its shares). Now Comcast (the only remaining partner) is looking at selling off its share in the company. If Disney becomes the sole owner, some may wonder if Hulu would become redundant since the Mouse House will also have Disney+. But chances are that both would survive with Disney+ targeting a more family friendly audience and Hulu having broader appeal and more adult content. Disney already has plans to launch several animated Marvel series on Hulu such as Howard the Duck and Tigra and Dazzler that will skew to an adult audience. And Hulu has several of its own originals such as The Handmaid’s Tail, Castle Rock, and Into the Dark that would not be a good fit on Disney+.

HBO Heads to Avenue 5: HBO has given a series order to the space comedy Avenue 5 from Veep creator Armando Iannucci. Deadline Hollywood gives the following description for the show:

Avenue 5 is space tourism comedy set 40 years in the future when the solar system is everyone’s oyster.

Hugh Laurie, Rebecca Front, Lenora Crichlow, Suzy Nakamura and Ethan Phillips are set to star in the series with Kevin Loader, Simon Blackwell, and Will Smith onboard as executive producers. The network will likely look at getting this one on its schedule at some point in 2020.

Casting News: Joss Wheden has cast Outlander‘s Laura Donnelly in the lead role in his upcoming HBO series The Nevers. Game of Thrones alum Jerome Flynn will be joining Amazon’s upcoming Dark Tower TV series. Harry Lloyd (Counterpart, Game of Thrones) has been cast as Bernard Marx in USA’s upcoming adaptation of Brave New World.

Production Notes: Production has begun on the upcoming Star Trek series starring Patrick Stewart that will focus on Jean-Luc Picard. That one is expected to debut on CBS All Access later this year or early 2020. HBO has confirmed that the Game of Thrones prequel from series writer Bryan Cogman will not be moving forward. That was one of several prequels and spin-offs under consideration with one already in the works and several more in the early stages of development.