“Picard”: Patrick Stewart Explains How “Logan” Led Him to “Star Trek” Spinoff

After seven seasons and four feature films of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sir Patrick Stewart was happy staying retired as Captain Jean Luc Picard. After retiring from his other signature role in Charles Xavier in FOX’s X-Men franchise in 2017’s Logan, Stewart decided to entertain a call from CBS All Access about a pitch for a new television series: Picard. Speaking at Destination Star Trek Birmingham in Alabama, he talked about revisiting the role he played for 15 years (with the Star Trek official site documenting the panel):

The Pitch of “Star Trek: Picard”

The meeting included producers Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman. They changed Stewart’s mind when he decided to pick their brains for their thoughts on where the series could go:

Stewart’s Change of Heart

Aside from the respect Stewart had for those he had in the meeting, he entertained the idea of returning to Star Trek after the ending to Logan left a profound impact. Stewart ended up playing Xavier/Professor X for 18 years:

What’s Changed

From the looks of the trailers released from CBS, Picard deviates from the familiar Star Trek formula much to Stewart’s satisfaction.

The footage released has many long-time fans crooning for updates of their favorite non-prequel Trek characters like Data (Brent Spiner), Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).

Star Trek: Picard comes to CBS All Access on January 23rd.

About Tom Chang

I'm a gamer, sci-fi and fantasy fan. film and TV snob. I love to write and read the classics. Anything you want to talk about, I'm here to entertain or at least pretend to be interested.

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