You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? The legend of Jean-Luc Picard?
If you consider yourself a Trekkie – or even just a lapsed Star Trek fan – chances are you’re pretty damn familiar with Patrick Stewart’s most famous character. He was undoubtedly the anchor of The Next Generation, and later this year, CBS All Access will whisk us through space and time for Star Trek: Picard, a standalone series set to explore the character’s life post-Starfleet. And not everything is as it seems.
Or so says executive producer and all-around Trek aficionado Alex Kurtzman, who sat down with Entertainment Weekly in anticipation of this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con. Asked straight-up if Picard will return to space, Kurtzman remained coy, and simply told EW that the character will journey back to the cosmos, but in the most unexpected way. Cue the speculation.
He will [go to space], but not in a way that anyone expects. Because he’s no longer in Starfleet, he no longer carries the weight of that behind him. In some ways, it’s easier to be [a great man] when you’re a captain. But it’s an entirely different thing when you don’t have an army behind you. When you want to get something done and fight an injustice, how do you do that when you’re really only one man?
From what we’ve seen of Star Trek: Picard thus far, CBS’ upcoming spinoff begins at a time when Patrick Stewart’s retiree is spending time with his dog at a vineyard in France – talk about doing retirement right, eh? – only to be drawn back to the stars, given the teaser ended with a mysterious voiceover alluding to the real reason Picard left Starfleet: he led an armada on a rescue mission to the doomed planet Romulus. And likely bore the brunt of the consequences.
Star Trek: Picard shoots for the stars in late 2019. And while CBS has yet to nail down an official premiere date, we fully expect more info to come out of SDCC.
