Jonathan Frakes Teases His Involvement In New Star Trek Series

Jonathan Frakes, who most recently reprised his role as William Riker in Star Trek: Picard, has now teased his involvement in several more new Star Trek series.

The actor built on his long-running role as Riker to direct multiple episodes in the Trek franchise, including work on Star Trek: Discovery. However, some comments made by Frakes at the recent GalaxyCon seem to imply that there are several more series that are in the works.

Here’s what he had to say about the number of Star Trek series he’s currently working on:

“It has been a blessing to have my career to be rekindled by the new Star Treks,” Frakes said. “It didn’t hurt that I learned how to do another craft. The directing has been fantastic for me. When Discovery worked out and then Picard worked out and now there will be a new one, and another one.”

The clearest candidates for new shows include an often-discussed Discovery spinoff focused on the Section 31 operation, although there’s also been talk of series based around Captain Pike and Spock. In addition, we recently heard that ViacomCBS are keen to create a crossover that will bring together the various new Trek shows, similar to what Netflix achieved with The Defenders.

Back in February, we reported on there being one new Star Trek movie, most likely the one being helmed by Noah Hawley, and two new series in-development. These will apparently be separate from the Section 31 show, as well as other planned series like Star Trek: Lower Decks and a new animated project. Given the sheer amount of Star Trek material that seems to be planned at ViacomCBS, including new seasons for Discovery and Picard, we’d be surprised if there were more ideas out there that we hadn’t yet heard about, but who knows?

At this time, we’d probably lean towards Frakes working on the Section 31 and Lower Decks series, as the Pike and Spock spinoffs appear to be at too early a stage of development and the animated show possibly employing a different creative team to give it a more distinct identity. In any event, we look forward to hearing more from Frakes about his Star Trek directing duties, and hopefully seeing him as Riker again on Picard.