The latest geek TV news roundup has some good news and some bad news.

CBS All Access is doubling down with a two-season order for an animated Star Trek series from Rick and Morty’s Mike McMahan and franchise overseer Alex Kurtzman (see "More 'Star Trek'"), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Star Trek: Lower Deck is a half-hour animated comedy and will be the proprietary streaming network’s first animated offering. Episode count and release date will be announced at a later date. With the success of Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access has been leaning heavily into the franchise, with a series of four short-format episodes called Star Trek: Short Treks and a new series centered on Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard (see “Patrick Stewart Returns to 'Star Trek'”).

Bee and PuppyCat are returning to airwaves with a new series, Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space, exclusively for the Cartoon Hangover Select channel on the VRV streaming platform. The series from Federator Studios (Castlevania, Adventure Time) and OLM, Inc. (Pokemon) will have half hour episodes and debut in 2019. Bee and PuppyCat creator Natasha Allegri will showrun. BOOM! Studios has released comics based on the popular property (see “'Bee and PuppyCat' Comic”).

Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water), who has an unending list of passion projects, is finally seeing one of them take the shape of a puppet who would be a real boy. Pinocchio, Del Toro’s long-gestating project with Netflix (see “del Toro Preps Edgier 'Pinocchio'”), will be a stop-motion musical set in Italy during the era of Mussolini reports THR. Production will begin this fall, with Del Toro and Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall) writing the script. Del Toro teamed previously with Netflix on the Trollhunters animated series (see “'LOTR,' 'Trollhunters' Spin-Offs, 'Orville' & 'Discovery' Renewed, 'Darkness Visible,' 'Hitman'”).

Another Marvel series has fallen under the ax at Netflix. Marvel’s Luke Cage will not be returning to the streaming network for a third season (via THR). The cancellation was reportedly due to creative differences and an inability to agree to terms. The cancelation marks the second for a Marvel-Netlfix series, with Iron Fist also nixed after its second season (see “'Watchmen' First Look, 'Pennyworth' Cast, CBS Orders 'Secret Six' Pilot, 'The Witcher' Adds Leads, 'The Mandalorian' Directors”). The character could find a second life on Disney’s in-development streaming service. For now, it appears that Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher will remain at Netflix.

Epix’s Batman prequel Pennyworth is rounding out its cast with the addition of pop star Paloma Faith (Peter & Wendy), Ryan Fletcher (Outlander), and Hainsley Lloyd Bennett (Eastenders). Faith will play the sharp-tongued villain Bet Sykes. Fletcher and Bennett will play Dave Boy and Bazza respectively, two lifelong friends from Alfred Pennyworth’s days in the army. The title role is played by Jack Bannon, and Ben Aldridge plays Thomas Wayne in the 1960s-set series, which will debut in 2019 (see “'Watchmen' First Look, 'Pennyworth' Cast, CBS Orders 'Secret Six' Pilot, 'The Witcher' Adds Leads, 'The Mandalorian' Directors”).