Great news, Trekkies: the man who captained the starship Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation is returning to the final frontier. None other than Sir Patrick Stewart himself (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) surprised fans at this year’s Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas to make the announcement. Check it out:
“Jean-Luc Picard is back,” Patrick told a room full of passionate fans. Cue the cheers.
Stewart was brought on stage by Alex Kurtzman, the executive producer of Star Trek: Discovery, which had a successful first season on the streaming platform CBS All Access. Season 2 is set to debut early next year. Picard will be back in a new, as-yet unnamed series. It will not be a reboot of The Next Generation, but rather a story about Picard’s life after that series ended:
It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Read my full statement in the photo. #StarTrek @cbsallaccess Photo: @shervinfoto pic.twitter.com/8Ynuj3RBNm
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) August 4, 2018
Although Star Trek: The Next Generation ended its run in 1994, four feature films followed, culminating with Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. That’s the last time we saw Captain Picard.
CBS has yet to reveal details on the new series, but it would be neat if former cast members from The Next Generation showed up, from Jonathan Frakes (William Riker) to Michael Dorn (Worf) to Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) and even Brent Spiner (Data)…that is, if Data ever regained consciousness after downloading parts of himself into B-4.
This is a great move for CBS, which wants to build on the success of Star Trek: Discovery. Make it so.
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h/t CBS