New Update On The Star Trek Picard Show Reveals How His Life’s Been Radically Altered

We’re now almost six months out from the announcement that Patrick Stewart will be returning to the iconic role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for a new ongoing Star Trek TV show. Considering that the actor had claimed that he was done with both the franchise and the character, this announcement came as something of a surprise and immediately ignited a torrent of fan speculation as to what this new series will be about.

Now, we have one small insight courtesy of executive producer Alex Kurtzman, who’ll be playing a key role in the show. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he teased the following:

“Picard’s life was radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire.”

This will have sent shockwaves reverberating throughout the Trek universe. After all, the Romulans were one of the most frequent adversaries of the Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Picard devoted much of his captaincy to diplomatic efforts to secure peace between the Romulan Empire and the Federation.

In one of the more highly regarded Trek crossovers, Picard and Spock even teamed up in the hope that peace could be brokered between Romulans and Vulcans (sadly, it didn’t happen). The relationship between the Romulans and Picard then came to a head in Star Trek: Nemesis, in which the Romulans created an evil clone of Picard. But, while they might’ve antagonized him, the Romulans never managed to make the captain abandon his principles and his hope that one day he might see the end of the war between their Empire and the Federation.

So, what impact would the dissolution of the Romulan Empire have on Picard? Well, depending on how it happened (possibly involving the planet Romulus being destroyed), it might’ve sent the remaining extra-planetary legions rogue, ensuring that there’s no central body to negotiate with and making genuine peace all but impossible.

I guess we’ll get a better idea once this goes before the cameras in Spring and we get a peek at what’s going on on the set. In the meantime, do any Trekkies who know more about this than me have any theories on how this event would have “radically altered” Captain Picard’s life? If so, feel free to let us know in the comments section.