Coming to terms with the end of a new Star Trek series is tough—especially after years with no Star Trek on TV at all—and especially when it’s a great show like . The Trek franchise is always hunting for new corners of the final frontier to explore, but the animated comedy felt like the freshest addition to the universe in decades. By zeroing in on characters who’d likely be background players in any other Trek project, Lower Decks found a new sweet spot with an underdog story. Its felt premature, not to mention disappointing: the show had so much potential, and even after five seasons, it didn’t seem to be slowing down.
While creator Mike McMahan assured Inverse that he , more or less, it still felt bittersweet that it had to end entirely. Luckily, McMahan has bounced back with another animated project. He and his Solar Opposites co-producer, Dominic Dierkes, are reuniting with CBS Studios for a new futuristic sitcom—and it sounds far bleaker than Lower Decks ever was.
CBS Studios and Prime Video are teaming up to produce Odd Jobs, an adult animated comedy that feels a lot like . “In Odd Jobs, the year is 2127,” the synopsis reads. “The world is an extreme late-stage capitalist hellscape. The show follows a reluctant team of gig-workers as they travel around the neo Midwest, doing the weirdest, most dangerous tasks the ODD JOBS app demands.”
According to McMahan and Dierkes, the series is based on their harrowing (and, from the sound of it, darkly funny) vision of the future. “While wandering through the wilderness, we accidentally stumbled through a portal and found ourselves hundreds of years in the future,” the duo said in a statement. “We witnessed bizarre and grotesque portents about where humanity is heading. Instead of acting on those warnings, we’re thrilled to turn them into an animated show.”
In this age of dystopia, black comedy certainly feels like the only way to go—but Odd Jobs will at least depict the end of the world with style.
Titmouse, the animation studio behind Lower Decks (as well as shows like , The Legend of Vox Machina, and Big Mouth), has been tapped to bring the series to life. It’s great news for any fan of McMahan’s work: though Lower Decks is gone, his next take on the future should be just as gripping.