Star Trek: Picard has been rolling the cameras since April with its lead star Sir Patrick Stewart. The spinoff series in the Star Trek franchise is expected to be out on CBS All Access in late 2019.
David Nevin, the head of CBS All Access, confirmed to the press that Star Trek: Picard will be coming to the streaming platform by the end of the year. The 10-episode installment is expected to finish production this October.
For this iteration, Stewart is reprising the role of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, which he has played on television from 1987 to 1994. Star Trek: Picard will follow the life of the captain after he has retired from the Starfleet.
Star Trek: Picard creator Alex Kurtzman said that the new show would be quite different from the usual Star Trek series. It was, in fact, Stewart who pursued that this new story should not be the same as all the other stories in the franchise.
"Patrick isn't playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he's done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show," Stewart's former co-star, Jonathan Frakes, told Comic Book in an interview. Frakes is going to be part of this spinoff series as one of the directors, specifically of episodes 3 and 4.
"It may be a very different individual, someone who has been changed by his experiences," Stewart said during a press panel. "Twenty years will have passed, which is more or less the time between the very last movie, Nemesis, and today."
Joining Stewart in Star Trek: Picard are Santiago Cabrera, Michael Hurd, Evan Evagora, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, and Harry Treadaway. According to Deadline, Cabrera's character is a skillful thief, while Hurd will play an intelligence officer with substance abuse problems.
The rest of the cast's roles have been kept a secret, though. But it looks like there will still be some space exploration in Picard's life after retirement. Also, it's still unclear if any of Stewart's former co-stars on Star Trek: Next Generation will appear as guests on Star Trek: Picard.
Meanwhile, Space reported that writer and producer Michael Chabon had been made the showrunner for Star Trek: Picard. Initially, Kurtzman said that there would be no showrunner on this show because it's going to be a communal effort with six writers.
CBS All Access initiated plans to develop this spinoff series with Kurtzman in 2018 after the success of the other spinoff, Star Trek: Discovery. Stewart then confirmed in August of that same year that he has agreed to be part of the show, where he has producing credits as well.
