The Star Trek movie franchise might be in a weird state right now, with Star Trek 4 cancelled and the Quentin Tarantino film sounding so strange it’s hard to imagine it happening, but Trek‘s flourishing on its original medium: TV. We already have Discovery and Short Treks and they’ll soon be joined by Picard and a couple of animated series. More shows – like the Section 31 spinoff with Michelle Yeoh – are also in development, too.
But how far will this expansion of the Trek universe go? Well, Julie McNamara, the head of original programming for CBS All Access, touched on this topic while speaking at the TCA Summer Press Tour. She explained that the network sees “limitless interest” in producing more content, though they are aware of the importance of choosing what they do “carefully.”
“We feel like any show that we add to that franchise needs to carve out a unique niche in the world of Star Trek, and needs to be a very good, high-level execution. I think we will collectively know when it feels like we actually should take our foot off the gas a little bit. We love the upside of this franchise [and] we feel like there’s kind of a limitless interest and appetite. That said, we have to curate carefully and only put the shows on when it feels right.”
This is similar to what Alex Kurtzman, EP and essentially the creative architect of Trek on TV, has previously said about how CBS All Access hopes to avoid franchise fatigue. He explained that there’s “no benefit to just pushing out” endless content and that the streaming service is aiming to “mine it wisely and effectively” and produce “a variety of talent and subject matter.”
The release schedule for the series also shows how they’re being cautious of dumping too much Trek all at once. With Picard likely to arrive in early 2020, Discovery season 3 will be pushed back until much later in the year. Once the other projects get on the air, that should mean we have multiple Star Trek shows a year, but without them overlapping.
