Star Trek: Lower Decks beams Starfleet’s animated underdogs toward S2 space mischief in SDCC trailer

They may not be the biggest or the brightest, but by gosh — they’re still determined to boldly go with the best of them. Voice cast members of Star Trek: Lower Decks boarded Comic-Con@Home today with a lighthearted look ahead at Season 2 of the hit original half-hour animated comedy series, which (of course) came complete with a trailer to tease the escalating hijinks aboard the hapless U.S.S. Cerritos.

Moderated by Jerry O’Connell, himself among the vocal cast of the Lower Decks crew, the SDCC chat was part of the overall Star Trek Universe panel, which kicked off the Con’s Peak Animation programming block, showcasing all the upcoming animated series bound for Paramount+. As the new clip teases, things aren’t slowing down on the Cerritos as it swings toward the show’s sophomore outing. If anything, in fact, they’re about to get a whole lot sillier.

Check out the new Season 2 trailer:

Yep, a match for Spock’s big brain these guys ain’t. But that doesn’t mean the Cerritos crew lacks devotion to their task — no matter how far down the chain of command it had to fall to land unceremoniously at their underdog feet. It takes a lot of talent, in fact, to pull off Lower Decks’ brand of spaced-out goofiness; not to mention lending the sometimes-weighty Star Trek universe some welcome levity.

And the talent turned out for the show’s SDCC panel, with O’Connell (who voices Commander Jack Ransom) presiding over a gifted ensemble that included Tawny Newsome (Ensign Mariner), Jack Quaid (Ensign Boimler), and Eugene Cordero (Ensign Rutherford), along with series creator, showrunner, and EP Mike McMahan, plus a special message from Noël Wells (Ensign Tendi). Additional returning Starfleet characters who’ll round out the Cerritos’ bridge crew include Captain Carol Freeman (voiced by Dawnn Lewis) and Doctor T’Ana (voiced by Gillian Vigman).

Paramount+ teases Season 2 of the series as “bigger, funnier, and Star Trekkier than ever before,” with “strange new (and familiar) aliens to challenge the crews of the U.S.S. Cerritos and the U.S.S. Titan. For Mariner, Tendi, Rutherford and Boimler,” it adds, “the animated adventure is just beginning.”

Developed by McMahan, who earned an Outstanding Animated Program Emmy for his work as supervising producer on the infamous “Pickle Rick” episode of Rick and Morty, season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks clears for takeoff as a Paramount+ exclusive beginning Aug. 12, with a third season already in the works.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of Comic-Con@Home 2021.