There’s a lot on the horizon for Trekkies to look forward to as Star Trek: Discovery has been renewed for a third season while a Section 31 spin-off involving Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou, but none is perhaps more exciting than Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series set after he left Starfleet post-Nemesis and following the destruction of Romulus (as seen in the 2009 Star Trek film).
The untitled series is being led by Star Trek: Discovery producer Alex Kurtzman, who has also worked on the Kelvin timeline films with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock. There isn’t much known about the Picard series aside from its setting and some character breakdowns, many of which have been cast already, but at the Paleyfest panel for Discovery, via Deadline, Kurtzman revealed a very emotional response he had to Stewart’s first reading of the pilot episode.
“Here’s what I will tell you- I had an amazing experience yesterday. I sat at Patrick’s kitchen table and I heard him read the first episode and I almost cried. It was quite something,” he told the crowd. “He’s at an amazing place in his life. He’s so excited. It’s going to be a very different show from Discovery. The only way this universe, I think, works correctly is if each show is really different and speaks to a different part of Star Trek.”
As to the challenges Picard will face in this new phase of his life, Kurtzman said “This is going to be a very thoughtful, psychological portrait in a lot of ways. We all know what Picard means to the world and why he, like so many legendary characters on Star Trek, has endured and what he’s represented. He in some ways has to go through a gauntlet to find that again. Things have changed for him and changed him in some ways, and yet he is so deeply and fundamentally still Picard. We’re thrilled at what we’re going to deliver. I know Patrick is really excited. The cast is coming together beautifully. And I will give you nothing else.”
Joining Stewart in the series is Santiago Cabera (Salvation), Michelle Hurd (Blindspot) and Evan Evagora (Fantasy Island).
Filming on the Picard series is set to get underway soon ahead of an expected premiere late this year.
