The anticipated Patrick Stewart series debuts Jan. 23 on CBS All Access.
Watch the premiere of Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access now.
Jean-Luc Picard is sticking around.
CBS All Access' highly anticipated series, Star Trek: Picard, has been picked up for a second season ahead of its Jan. 23 launch, it was announced Sunday at the winter Television Critics Association press tour.
Star Trek: Picard returns Sir Patrick Stewart back in his iconic role as Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Set 20 years after the events of Next Generation, the new series follows Picard in the next chapter of his life. A trailer revealed Picard enjoying retired life and running his own winery at Chateau Picard.
“The energy and excitement around the premiere of Picard has reached a magnitude greater than all of us at CBS All Access could have hoped for,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President of Original Content at CBS All Access. “We’re thrilled to announce plans for a second season before the series’ debut, and we are confident that Star Trek fans and new viewers alike will be captured by the stellar cast and creative team’s meticulously crafted story when it premieres on Jan. 23.”
Joining Stewart in the cast are Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dahj), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker), Santiago Cabrera (Cristobal Rios) and Harry Treadaway (Narek), as well as Picard's dog, Number One.
Star Trek legends Brent Spiner (Data), Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) will also reprise their Next Generation characters on Picard.
Stewart opened up on Sunday about stepping back onto the set of Picard after decades away as the titular character.
"I didn't want to wear a uniform in this. I felt it important that we put a lot of distance between Next Generation and what we're doing [on Picard]," Stewart said during the panel. "There was actually nothing that strange to be stepping into Star Trek: Picard because he's never actually left me. He's always been there. It's a relationship that I'm happy to continue. That's an understatement. I'm absolutely thrilled."
The 79-year-old actor also revealed why it was important for Picard to have a dog in this new chapter in his post-Starfleet life.
"The dog was my idea because life has changed. He's troubled, disturbed, lonely and with feelings of strange unnatural guilt. To just see him with a dog seemed to me to write a lot of things that didn't have to be said because the presence of the dog alone means he's looking for some form of comfort," Stewart illuminated.
"It's terrific to have Deniro and I hope you see much more of it."
Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman gave an early sense of what the tone of the series would inhabit, promising that it will feel "grounded."
"Patrick was very clear to us in the beginning: He did not want to repeat what he had already done. And by the way, it’s been 20-plus years, so he couldn’t possibly be that same person anymore," Kurtzman said last January. "So the question becomes: What has happened to him in that period of time? Have there been occurrences that force him to reckon with choices that he’s made in his life? How do you hold on to being the person everybody loved when the circumstances around you may have changed so radically? Those are the big questions that we’re asking."
Kurtzman also hinted that Stewart, who is an executive producer on Picard, shared insight on what their creative conversations surrounding the series have been.
"Patrick didn’t want to put handcuffs on us in any way by saying, 'I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to do that.' He said, 'I want you to have the freedom to explore this character from a new perspective and I will always know in my gut if it feels like something he would or wouldn’t do,'" he shared. "That’s the conversation that we have as we’re building it scene to scene."
The early season two pickup of Picard cements the expanding Star Trek franchise on CBS All Access, which already includes Star Trek: Discovery and animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Star Trek: Picard launches Thursday, Jan. 23 on CBS All Access, with subsequent episodes debuting every Thursday.
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