Star Trek: Prodigy is an American animated science fiction television series created by Kevin and Dan Hageman. It is the tenth Star Trek series and was released from 2021 to 2024 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target a younger audience, and the franchise's first solely 3D animated series. It follows a group of young aliens in the 24th century who find the abandoned starship Protostar and learn about Starfleet.

Brett Gray, Ella Purnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Angus Imrie, Rylee Alazraqui, and Dee Bradley Baker voice the young crew of the Protostar, with Jimmi Simpson, John Noble, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Robert Picardo, Jameela Jamil, and Wil Wheaton also providing voices for the series. Kurtzman first mentioned a youth-focused animated series in January 2019 and it was confirmed a month later. The Hageman brothers were set as creators and showrunners, and Nickelodeon ordered two seasons of Prodigy that April, to be released on the cable channel after streaming on Paramount+ first. Ben Hibon was announced as director and creative lead in August 2020. The series was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions and Nickelodeon Animation Studio in association with Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment, and Brothers Hageman Productions.

Star Trek: Prodigy premiered on Paramount+ on October 28, 2021, and began airing on Nickelodeon on December 17. The 20-episode first season ended in December 2022. Work had already commenced on the second season when the series was canceled and removed from Paramount+ in June 2023. Netflix picked up the series that October and released the first season for streaming in December 2023. The second season was released in France on france.tv in March 2024, and was released on Netflix that July. The series received positive reviews from critics and won two Children's and Family Emmy Awards. Despite the showrunner's plans for more seasons, Netflix decided not to continue the series.

In 2383, five years after the USS Voyager returned to Earth at the end of Star Trek: Voyager, a motley crew of young aliens find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar, in the Tars Lamora prison colony. Taking control of the ship, they must learn to work together as they make their way from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant. At the start of the second season, they join Admiral Kathryn Janeway as warrant officers aboard the USS Voyager-A on a mission to find the original crew of the Protostar.

In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of the series Star Trek: Discovery, Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. After the announcement of adult animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks, Kurtzman said in January 2019 that there would be at least one more animated series released as part of his expansion. This would be a "kids-focused" series that could potentially be released on a different network from the more adult-focused streaming service CBS All Access (later rebranded Paramount+) where the other Star Trek series under Kurtzman were being released. Kurtzman said other animated series would be different from Lower Decks in both tone and visual style. The latter could potentially be achieved through different technology.

Kevin and Dan Hageman joined the series as writers by mid-February 2019, when Nickelodeon was in talks to air the show since its viewers match the series' younger target audience. The project was expected to be a "major tentpole series" for the network under its new president Brian Robbins. A month later, Kurtzman confirmed the project and said negotiations with Nickelodeon were almost complete. He expected the series to be ready for release in 2021 or 2022. Nickelodeon officially ordered the series in late April 2019 and the Hageman brothers were confirmed to be writing and executive producing the series alongside Kurtzman, Secret Hideout's Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment, and CBS Television's animation executive Katie Krentz. Kadin revealed in October 2019 that Nickelodeon had ordered two seasons of the series due to the animation work that was required. She also explained that the Hagemans were hired due to their work on previous children's series that did not play down to the audience and were still watchable for older viewers. She felt older Star Trek fans would be able to watch the series with their children to introduce them to the franchise.

In an article on the Star Trek franchise in January 2020, The Wall Street Journal listed the series as Star Trek: Prodigy. This title was officially confirmed in July, along with a 2021 release date. Ramsey Naito was overseeing the series for Nickelodeon as EVP of Animation Production and Development. Ben Hibon was announced as director, co-executive producer, and creative lead for the series in August 2020. Naito described Hibon as "an incredible storyteller and a world builder with a distinct vision" for the series. In February 2021, ViacomCBS announced that Prodigy would debut on the streaming service Paramount+ along with the rest of the Star Trek Universe. Paramount+'s EVP of development and programming, Julie McNamara, said they would have the "best of both worlds" with this move by introducing the series to fans of the other Star Trek series on the service before bringing it to new audiences on Nickelodeon. She added that viewership data from CBS All Access showed that fans of Star Trek also watched the animated series The Legend of Korra on the service, and this was another factor in deciding to add Prodigy to Paramount+. At that time, the first season was revealed to have 20 episodes.

A 20-episode second season was officially confirmed by Paramount+ in November 2021. First-season writer Aaron Waltke was promoted to co-head writer and co-executive producer of the second season. A year later, Waltke said he had discussed continuing the series beyond the first two seasons with the Hagemans and they hoped it could run for seven seasons before expanding to films; Kevin Hageman elaborated that he thought the Star Trek franchise could use an "epic animated film series that have a new adventure every couple of years that the whole family can go see". In June 2023, Paramount+ canceled several original series and removed them from the streaming service in exchange for a "content impairment charge". This included Star Trek: Prodigy, and came as part of wider cost-cutting changes being made by many streaming services. The series was also not expected to return to Nickelodeon. The crew continued work on the second season while CBS searched for a different streaming service or network to release it. In October 2023, the series was picked up by Netflix.