Picard season 3 has “some game-changing Star Trek Universe ideas”

The second season of Star Trek: Picard is just around the corner, and it looks to swing big. The new season will bring Q (John de Lancie) back into the fold. The mischievous being will alter the fabric of reality and show Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) a sideways reality where he rules the galaxy as a fascist. Then, Picard gathers his team to go back in time to our world to stop that reality from coming to pass.

That is some straight-up sci-fi stuff right there. My interest is definitely piqued.

And there’s still (at least) one more season of Picard left after this. And apparently it’s going to introduce some changes, as co-showrunner Terry Matalas explained to SFX Magazine. [I]n season three, there are some game-changing Star Trek Universe ideas,” he said. “Season two, as epic in scope as it is, is an intimate story.”

So what kinds of game-changing ideas are we talking about in season 3? Matalas was right-lipped, but he did offer a couple of hints. “There are a few nods to the Kirk movies. I grew up with the original series and the Kirk movies. That’s my Star Trek,” he said. “So you’ll see a few of those things kind of tie some Star Trek together. And I think [co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman] has constructed a really fascinating and heartbreaking psychological exploration of Picard that no one is expecting.”

"My inner fanboy is kind of on fire with the stuff that I’ve been able to do. There’s a lot of things that I can’t talk about yet that I’m just bursting at the seams to talk about. There’s been a lot of absolutely legendary moments that have happened in the last year with no press yet. There are starship designs and things for the next two seasons that I’m really excited about."

He seems to have been sharing advance looks at these designs and references on social media:

Will there be a Star Trek: Picard season 4?

Word is that season 3 will be the final season of Star Trek: Picard — Patrick Stewart is 81 years old, after all — but co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman told SFX that anything could happen. “God knows what the future will bring,” he said.

And if there isn’t a fourth season, there may be spinoffs. “Are there things in Picard that could be their own storytelling arc? Or their own storytelling spines? Yeah, for sure,” Goldsman said. “Is that the direction of the expansion of the Star Trek Universe? That turns out to be above my pay grade.”

Matalas also weighed in on this possibility: “What more is coming in that story? It’s definitely my favorite time period. To me, Star Trek: Picard is the present day of Star Trek. And what’s going on in that particular world is very important to me. So stay tuned, that’s what I’ll say.”

Star Trek: Picard season 2 premieres on March 3 on Paramount+.

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h/t StarTrek.com