Star Trek: Picard, the eighth series in the Star Trek franchise which will centre on The Next Generation character Jean-Luc Picard, is currently in production. This page is dedicated to everything we know so far. Anything that is fact will be presented in regular type, anything that's rumoured but looking likely will be written in italics. You'll find links throughout to original/external news stories and articles containing further information, where available.
Be warned there could be potential SPOILERS throughout.
So without further ado, let's get on with it.
Background Development
In June 2018, Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery (which he was showrunner on) to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Kurtzman believed Picard was the greatest Star Trek captain and included a series featuring the character, as played by Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation, on his wish list. One of these new series was believed to star Patrick Stewart, reprising his role of Jean-Luc Picard from the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman (who worked on the first season of Discovery) began development of the potential project, first contacting Patrick Stewart in late 2017 - despite his previous statements that he was done with the franchise. The pair, and Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer, met with the actor in January 2018, who later said he only took the meeting with the intention of turning the project down but was intrigued enough by their discussion to ask them for a three-page document outlining their ideas.
At that time, Goldsman invited novelist Michael Chabon, a friend, to work on the project as well and the four ultimately produced a 34-page document that they sent to Stewart. He organised another meeting with them in March 2018, where he expressed his approval of their pitch. While deciding whether to join the project, Stewart asked Kurtzman that the series be "so different" from previous Star Trek stories, "both what people remember but also not what they're expecting at all, otherwise why do it?". Stewart was also concerned that the series would be "jokey", but received assurances from the project's creative team that it would not be.
Finally, on August 4th 2018, Stewart made a surprise appearance at the annual Las Vegas Star Trek Convention to officially announce the series and confirm that he would star in it.
Stewart returns to the role after last portraying the character in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. Although he had previously stated that he felt that at that time his role in the franchise "had run its natural course", he later said that in the years since he has been humbled by stories of the impact the character had on the lives of fans and so was now happy...
...to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times.
Release Date
Star Trek: Picard will premiere on January 23rd 2020 on CBS All Access in the United States, and run for 10 episodes. Like Discovery before it, each episode of the series will be broadcast in Canada by Bell Media on the same day as the All Access release, on the specialty channels Space (English) and Z (French) before streaming on Crave.
As for international territories, Amazon Prime Video will stream the episodes within 24 hours of their U.S. release in over 200 other countries and territories around the world (this is different than Discovery, which is released internationally by Netflix).
Cast
- Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard: Retired admiral and former captain of the USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E.
- Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal "Chris" Rios: The pilot of Picard's ship and a skilled thief.
- Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker: A former intelligence officer struggling with substance abuse.
- Evan Evagora as Elnor: A Romulan refugee who is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and is fiercely loyal to Picard.
- Alison Pill as Dr. Agnes Jurati
- Harry Treadaway as Narek: A Romulan refugee who joins Picard's crew in investigating what his people are doing to former Borg drones.
- Isa Briones as Dahj
Jonathan Frakes gave a brief interview about returning to the role of Riker. It sounds very much like it's a one-time cameo, possibly for episode five, as he claims to have shot his scenes at the end of July 2019 after completing the block of filming he directed (presumed episodes three and four).
Frakes said he “was nervous,” as…
...Nemesis was what? 17 years, 18 years [ago]. Luckily it was with my old pal, and I had just directed two episodes of the show. So I did [it] with Patrick who is just… He’s crushing it on this series. He’s just on fire.As for is his character is still married to Deanna Troi...
I can’t obviously tell you specifics, but Marina and I… Well, you’ll see where we are. We’re together, and it’s quite… it’s non-military. I’ll say that.
Producers
Stewart will act as Executive Producer on Star Trek: Picard. The other known members of the production team include;t Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, James Duff, Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth.
Filming
Principal Photography began on April 22nd 2019, at Santa Clarita Studios, California, under the working title Drawing Room.
Directors
The first two episodes produced are known to have been directed by Hanelle Culpepper, who previously directed for Discovery and is the first woman to direct the initial episode of any Star Trek series. These first two episodes make up the first "block" of filming for the series, with its 10 episodes split into five blocks total. Apart from the series opener, it's not yet confirmed where the actual positioning of the second episode will sit in broadcast terms, as episodes are often filmed out of order.
Jonathan Frakes (who also previously directed for Discovery) directs the second block of episodes and stated his belief that this block system had more to do with amortization than any story-based reasons. Again, leading to the though that, at least some of, the episodes are being filmed out of order.
Filming is expected to conclude on October 1st 2019.
Premise
The series is set 20 years after Jean-Luc Picard's last appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis, and finds him deeply affected by the destruction of Romulus, as depicted in the film Star Trek (2009), , as well as the death of Data from the aforementioned Nemesis.
As you can see from the poster above, Jean-Luc also has himself a pet. A French Bulldog, to be exact.
Kurtzman said the mandate for the series was to make it
A more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus yearsKurtzman also noted that they hope to have Picard finding its way back to Gene Roddenberry's original optimistic vision for the Star Trek franchise, although the character would have to "go through deep valleys" to reinforce that vision.
Trailers
Debuting at the 2019 San Diego Comic Con, the first trailer for Star Trek: Picard is above. It confirmed the return of Jeri Ryan, as Seven of Nine, and, even though he's initially seen disassembled, Data (played by Brett Spiner) appears very much 'alive' in the closing shots.
A second trailer premiered during New York Comic Con on October 5th...
— Alex Kurtzman (@Alex_Kurtzman) October 5, 2019
Episodes
1. Title: Unknown
Director: Hanelle Culpepper
Written By: Unknown
Synopsis: Unknown
Broadcast Date: TBC
2. Title: Unknown
Director: Hanelle Culpepper
Written By: Unknown
Synopsis: Unknown
Broadcast Date: TBC
3. Title: Unknown
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Written By: Unknown
Synopsis: Unknown
Broadcast Date: TBC
4. Title: Unknown
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Written By: Unknown
Synopsis: Unknown
Broadcast Date: TBC
5-10. Unknown.
That's everything we know at this stage, but as we hear of any news surrounding the upcoming Star Trek: Picard series we will update this page, so check back soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment