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Star Trek: Prodigy packs a pretty heavy punch for a series that is targeted toward a younger demographic. In Episode 15, the crew of the U.S.S. Protostar—and more specifically Dal (Brett Gray)—gets swept up in the mystery of his origins, which leads to series-typical hijinks, mayhem, and thoughtful exploration. Dal isn’t the only one grappling with the truth of who his family was (or, in Dal’s case wasn’t), Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) is also learning more about his origins on Tellarite before he was kidnaped as a child, and forced to labor at the Tars Lamora prison colony.
In a 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Jason Mantzoukas opened up about the audition process for Star Trek: Prodigy, whether or not he was a Trekkie before he got the job, what it’s like playing a 16-year-old Tellarite, how impressed he is with the way Prodigy approaches its larger themes, how he loves playing a contrarian like Jankom, and how the crew of the Protostar fits together. He also briefly spoke about his wide-ranging voice acting career, including how excited he is about working on Invincible.
COLLIDER: You have had such a varied career in voice acting. You’ve got the raunchy thrills of Big Mouth, the outrageousness of voicing Tommy Lee’s penis, and then you have sweet stuff like Star Trek: Prodigy. What draws you to your different voice-acting roles?
JASON MANTZOUKAS: Let’s see. I got to say it’s different stuff. I think one of the most attractive things is the variety that your question is predicated on. There is all of these things, whether it’s Big Mouth, Big Mouth is, let’s just say, experientially, Big Mouth is a show that my friends created and were so generous to be like, “Hey, come do this show with us.” “Great, I’m in. Let’s do it.” I get to do that with my friends. Something like Close Enough, the J.G. Quintel show that heartbreakingly has now been canceled at HBO Max. I was such a fan of Regular Show and got to be a couple of guest voices in that, truly as a fan. And then JG, they asked me to come in and do his next show. And that was super exciting to me because I loved it and I loved what we did with that show.
Tommy Lee’s penis, that’s just… How do you say no to that? That’s like when you wake up and get a text from Seth Rogen that says, “Hey, man, do you have 20 minutes to do a couple of lines for this Tommy Lee show we’re doing?” And I think, “What’s the role?” And he said, “It’s literally Tommy’s dick,” or something like that. I was like, “Absolutely.”
But Prodigy truly was a very normal audition process. They were seeing actors for the parts and I auditioned. And I got a callback and I went in again. And so that really was the quintessential, I’m trying to get a role. And for me, just even based on what little I knew about it, the idea of being in a Star Trek animated show, so exciting. And then on top of that, one that is geared towards a young adult audience. I love this kind of a story, this kind of a coming-of-age story, call to adventure, young kids on an adventure. Those are the kind of stories I love digesting. So the idea that I could be a part of one was just… This was one that I chased.
Were you a Trekkie before joining this show?
MANTZOUKAS: Not particularly, not to any great degree. I certainly have watched plenty of it. I’m not any kind of completist. I wouldn’t characterize myself as a Trekkie, but I’ve certainly digested over the years quite a bit of it. When we’re doing the show, there’s obviously a lot of callbacks, homages, a lot of recurring pieces or plot lines or characters even. And I’d say I recognize half of them. And the other half, Kevin or Dan, or whoever in the recording session will be like, “Oh, this is actually referencing this scene from this episode.” So I love that they’re so deep in it and give context, and joyfully so, [which] gives me a sense of exactly how we are connected to the larger canon, which I think is wonderful. And I’ll say this era of Star Trek shows, I very much am a fan of. I’ve gone through all of Lower Decks, I think it’s fantastic. I thought Strange New Worlds was incredible. I’m enjoying what’s happening right now.
With Episode 15, it delivers a lot of very fun twists and turns for this cast of characters. And I’m curious, what is it like getting to explore these ideas, belonging, and these characters looking for who their families were and whether that actually impacts their futures?
MANTZOUKAS: Yeah. And that idea of not just who their families are, but where do they come from? Who are they? This idea, this central question of, ‘Who am I?’ is such the right question for characters this age to be asking. I love that as the series is going, we’re watching them try, and try and fail oftentimes, to figure that out, making the mistakes along the way to figure out who they are, not just as individuals, not just as a crew, but as a family. This is a fellowship, this is Lord of the Rings. This is a fellowship of characters. This is the family that they find along the way, that they make along the way. These are orphans, or these are characters who were kidnaped or stolen, or sold into slavery. So for them to find a way to discover who they are through exploration, that’s very exciting. What a rich kind of story to tell.
It is. I tell everyone that Star Trek: Prodigy, I’m a lifelong Trekkie, and I tell everybody that Star Trek: Prodigy has become my favorite Star Trek because it explores these themes, and in a perfect way for kids. And it’s so great. I wish I had this when I was a child.
MANTZOUKAS: While not sacrificing the adventure.
Exactly.
MANTZOUKAS: Really, they’re threading the needle so beautifully, I think. Yeah, go ahead.
I agree with you completely. They are, and I tell them this every time I talk to them. But what is it like for you getting to voice a 16-year-old Tellarite? Where do you come from when you show up in the recording booth?
MANTZOUKAS: Usually I come from my kitchen with a cup of coffee and I lock myself in my closet where I, over the last couple of years, have covered it in blankets and a bunch of other nonsense so that it can qualify as a sound booth, and I just grumpily scream into my microphone. I think the thing, honestly, that I loved the most about playing this character is how confidently and joyfully contrarian he is. As a Tellarite, that contrarian attitude is baked into the character. And it’s really fun to be able to do that. It’s fun to be the character who can poke and prod everybody with contrarian ideas, even if Jankom Pog doesn’t himself believe those ideas.
A lot of times, we’ll be doing the recordings and the lines will be written such that Jankom will almost seem to be agreeing. And I’ll say, “Well, what if he just disagreed here?” And we’ll get such a big kick out of like, well, this is an obvious, everybody should be on the same page, but isn’t it delightful that Jankom Pog is like, “Or maybe not.” And that’s that I love, because those beats are him establishing himself as an individual, but then also they are just pure comedy beats, which is fun.
For my last question for you, you mentioned Seth Rogen at the top of the conversation. Collider just recently chatted with him about The Fablemans and Invincible came up, so it’s going to come up here too. Have you been recording for that? What can you tease for Season 2?
MANTZOUKAS: I have. I have been recording for Season 2. I can tease nothing except that it will be incredible, full stop. You said you’re a lifelong Trek fan. I’m a lifelong comics fan. And so, I’m somebody who read Invincible from the early days it started coming out until it ended, whatever, 15 years later. This is a book that I digested over the course of 15 years. And this story is so familiar to me and I love it. And when Robert [Kirkman] asked me to do the series, I reread the whole series again and loved it even more, so much that I’d forgotten so many side tangents and plot lines that I had forgotten about. And what I’m loving about the series is what they’re choosing to include, where they’re choosing to have us go on this massive journey that exists that I understand where it could go. But I’m delighted with what stories Robert is interested in telling inside of the Invincible world. I think this is going to be a truly iconic show.
Oh, I cannot wait to see it. And it always makes me so happy when people who love the source material get to bring characters from that world to life. It’s just the best.
MANTZOUKAS: It’s the best. It’s the best. As a Star Trek fan, it’s incredible to be in a Star Trek show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely bananas and exciting. But the idea that I’m playing Rex Splode, that’s nuts. Again, I spent over a decade reading about this character, that I get to be that voice is pretty cool.
It is epic. Thank you so much for your time today.
Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming now Paramount+ Speaking of Seth Rogen, check out our interview with him below:
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