Star Trek Lower Decks: Release date, red alert for Boimler, and a familiar voice at Comic Con

Last week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks panel during Comic-Con@Home did not disappoint in any way. We got jazz hands, which was how moderator Jerry O’Connell slowly “beamed” in (“energizing”). Hilarious. Joining him were our favorite crackpot crew of the U.S.S Cerritos: Tawny Newsome (Beckett Mariner), Jack Quaid (Brad Boimler), and Eugene Cordero (Rutherford) as well as creator Mike McMahan. Noel Wells (who voices D’Vana Tendi) couldn’t beam in but managed to send a sweet message to the cast and fans.

The Lower Decks panel was as fun and goofy as the show itself. “The panel of all panels,” was how host O’Connell described it, after transfixing the cast with his jazz hands, which Newsome labeled “inverted jazz hands,” but Quaid insisted were “inside jazz hands.” O’Connell also lobbied for a promotion, calling himself “the best commander” since Will Riker is technically a captain now.

Then the convo just devolved into speedos, football, rugby pads, and the basketball court as the crew discussed the awesome reception they received for the very popular first season.

“The welcoming we got for the show was unbelievable,” gushed Eugene Cordero. Quaid also did a shoutout to him about his roles throughout the “trifecta” (Star Wars’ Mandalorian, Marvel’s Loki, and of course Trek), which they all agreed was “obituary stuff.” It’s clear that this goofball cast absolutely loves working together, and it’s why the show is such a success.

There’s so much to love about this zany crew and you can check out the panel in its entirety here, including which actors share a Superman experience!

All goofing aside, here’s the important stuff, the reveals from the panel.

We got a new trailer for the second season of Lower Decks! The sneak peek was full of more jokes, lots of loveable Trek references, and Boimler squeezed into all kinds of uncomfortable situations after Captain Riker handed him that promotion to join the U.S.S. Titan. No one handles out-of-his depths cringe like Jack Quaid, am I right?

"“We left a lot of bills to pay with characters, and with what was going on in the world. You know, we just keep at it. We were saying this earlier but there is a really great mix of serious Trek and silly Trek,” Mike McMahan, Creator and Executive Producer on Lower Decks, said of season 2 during the panel. You can read more about the S2 reveals here on Gizmodo.“Because if you’re on a Starfleet ship, you don’t know if you’re going to encounter the Jem’Hadar or a guy who traps you in a game, you know what I mean? You’ll see some familiar faces, you’ll see a lot of new stuff. The Cerritos goes through some real rigamarole. I’m just excited for August.”"

Alongside the return of Riker, the trailer also featured a delightful hallucination by Boimler where he converses with Tom Paris from Star Trek: Voyager, voiced by the returning Robert Duncan McNeill (wonderful!).

Drop date for Star Trek: Lower Decks S2 on Paramount+: August 12, just a few short weeks away!