Star Trek: Picard Renewed for Season 2 Ahead of Series Premiere

Star Trek: Picard has been renewed for season 2 ahead of the series' premiere on CBS All Access. The classic sci-fi franchise returned to the small screen (following a twelve year break after Enterprise concluded) in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, a quasi-prequel to The Original Series. Discovery's success has since inspired CBS to develop an entire universe of Star Trek TV shows on its streaming service, under the supervision of writer-producer Alex Kurtzman. Up first is Picard, a TV show set about twenty years after the events of 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis.

Picard will serve as a partial sequel to not only Star Trek: The Next Generation but also Star Trek: Voyager, with Patrick Stewart reprising his role as beloved (now, ex-Starfleet) Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The show's marketing has further confirmed Stewart's The Next Generation cast mates Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, and Marina Sirtis will also be making appearances during the series' first season. That might not be their only contributions to the show either, now that a second season has been green-lit.

Deadline is reporting Picard season 2 is moving forward, ahead of the show's launch next month on January 23. Season 2 has already been allocated $20.4 million in California tax incentives for filming, which is even more than season 1 was granted last year ($15.6 million). The site's sources are further claiming production on season 2 could get underway as soon as next spring. However, Michael Chabon will be stepping away as showrunner on season 2 to work on the limited series adaptation of his novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (though, as Trek Core notes, he's expected to stay onboard for the first part of the second season).

As mentioned, Picard finds its namesake living in retirement on his family's vineyard in France, having stepped away from Starfleet after a rescue mission to save the Romulan people (following their planet's destruction in the 2009 Star Trek movie reboot) forced him to make a terrible choice and left him disillusioned with the Federation. The show will follow him as he joins forces with a motley crew (played by actors like Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, and Santiago Cabrera) for a new operation without the Federation's approval, in an effort to make amends with his past and restore his sense of hope for the future. And while some fans are speculating this will be Picard's last mission, he presumably won't die in season 1 - not unless the show's creatives have something radical in mind for season 2.

The trailer footage indicates Picard does a nice job balancing nostalgia with storytelling that moves the franchise forward, and ought to play all the better with longtime Trekkies for it. It's similarly expected to earn big viewership numbers for CBS All Access when it premieres and serve as an entry point into the new generation of Star Trek TV for those who aren't keeping up with Discovery and/or would prefer something a little closer in tone and style to the Star Trek series of the 1980s and '90s. That's to say, it's probably a smart call on CBS' part to get the ball rolling on season 2 early.

Star Trek: Picard premieres Thursday, January 23, 2020 on CBS All Access.

Source: Deadline, Trek Core

Source: screenrant.com