At San Diego Comic-Con In July, CBS announced they will begin releasing four monthly Star Trek: Short Treks mini-episodes tied into Star Trek: Discovery this fall, including one featuring the return of Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd, which Wilson will also direct. Last month at STLV, Wilson revealed his Short Treks episode was written by an unnamed writer of Cartoon Network’s hit sci-fi animated show Rick and Morty. Now it appears that the writer has been revealed, and he should be familiar to some Trek fans.

Mike McMahan goes from TNG S8 to Rick and Morty to Short Treks

We had a hunch that the Rick and Morty writer Rainn Wilson was talking about was Mike McMahan, who’s known to be a big Star Trek fan. McMahan seems to have confirmed our hunch this weekend, posting some tweets that show he is in Toronto on the Star Trek: Discovery sets, which is where the Short Treks are also shot.

Dude I’m up and it’s 3am and we film tomorrow 😐 — Mike McMahan (@MikeMcMahanTM) September 14, 2018

Not much is known about the Short Treks episode featuring Harry Mudd, but last month Rainn Wilson revealed:

It is very funny and weird. You see some alien situations you have never seen before in the Star Trek canon, and I am thrilled.

One thing we do know for sure is that McMahan is a serious Trekkie. Before becoming a writer and producer for Rick and Morty, he was the mind behind @TNG_S8, the popular Twitter parody account about a hypothetical eighth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The account became so popular that it landed him a book deal, and in 2015 he published the officially licensed Warped: An Engaging Guide to the Never-Aired 8th Season.

Showing even more of his Trek cred, way back in 2013 McMahan announced the launch of Rick and Morty via his @TNG_S8 account with a mash-up of TNG and Rick and Morty, created by Rick and Morty art department staffer Steven Chunn. McMahan started as writer’s assistant and story editor for Rick and Morty, eventually rising to writer and supervising producer. Just last weekend he won an Emmy for his work on the show, which won for Outstanding Animated Program.

RED ALERT: watch @danharmon & @JustinRoiland's new show RICK AND MORTY – starting 12/2 on #adultswim. I wrote on it! pic.twitter.com/TmCgIi7CYt — TNG Season 8 (@TNG_S8) November 27, 2013

Is McMahan the man for the possible Star Trek animated series?

It’s possible that writing for Short Treks isn’t McMahan’s only connection to future work for Star Trek. It has been reported that one of the new shows in the expanded TV universe of Trek is an animated series. In their exclusive interview at San Diego Comic-Con with TrekMovie, Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin, who are overseeing the expansion of Trek on TV, confirmed there were “conversations” about an animated Trek series. It makes sense that someone like McMahan would be recruited to help oversee an animated Star Trek show. Remember, we first learned of Michael Chabon’s involvement with CBS Trek productions through his Short Treks episode, and then found out in Las Vegas that he was a writer/producer for the new Picard series.

In our SDCC interview with executive producer Heather Kadin, she touched on how they are open to different formats and styles, and that people from all kinds of creative avenues have been asking to get involved in Trek. She also specifically mentioned animation writers:

Well I also think it’s important to say that it’s not just one-hour drama. I mean, there’s so much opportunity to “bend not break” the franchise in formats we haven’t seen in a while, different tones. And what’s amazing about Star Trek is that it’s such a beloved franchise that we have writers calling – I mean, Michael Chabon, who wrote one of the shorts that Aldis Hodge is starring in – Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is like “Hey, I want to write a short for you for $2.55”. So we get people from all different tones – comedy writers, animation writers, who just want so desperately to be a part of Trek.

McMahan would be a natural fit for an animated Trek show, but he’s already pretty busy. He’s currently the co-creator/executive producer and writer for the new Hulu animated sci-fi comedy Solar Opposites, which has already scored a two-season order.

More Short Treks

We do know a little bit about the other Star Trek: Short Treks mini-episodes that are coming sometime this fall. In addition to the one featuring Harry Mudd, another was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon starring actor Aldis Hodge as a character who finds himself as the only human on board a deserted ship. The third episode will feature Doug Jones and explore Saru’s backstory as the first Kelpien to join Starfleet. The last episode features Mary Wiseman and will focus on Tilly’s journey aboard the USS Discovery and her friendship with an unlikely partner.

Keep up with all upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.