Star Trek: New Details on Patrick Stewart's New Jean-Luc Picard CBS All Access Series Surface

UPDATE: You can watch Stewart announce the series himself here. Star Trek icon William Shatner has also offered his congratulations to Stewart.

Today, Star Trek fans rejoiced as Patrick Stewart announced his return to the role of Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series on CBS All Access. While not much else was said about the series in the announcement, some new details have surfaced to shed some light on what Stewart's return will look like.

First was a telling statement from Stewart during his appearance on stage at Star Trek Las Vegas. He stated that 20 years have passed since fans last saw Picard and said, "[Picard] may not be a Captain anymore. He may be someone who has been changed by his experiences. We have no scripts as yet. We're just talking talking talking storylines. It will be something very different but it will come to you with the same passion."

What does this tell us? Well, beside that the series is in its earliest stages of development, it tells us that we're definitely not looking a reboot, but a continuation of the Picard's original story past its previous end in Star Trek: Nemesis. It also implies, obviously, that Picard is no longer the captain of the USS Enterprise. It is possible that he has moved on to become an admiral or, alternatively, he could be an ambassador, the future implied for him in the comic book Star Trek: Countdown, which was co-written by Alex Kurtzman to lead into the 2009 Star Trek movie. Then again, perhaps he's left Starfleet entirely.

We can speculate on that, but Variety has also revealed who is actually involved in creating this new series. Some names are expected and others less so.

The series is being developed by Alex Kurtzman, James Duff, Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, and Kirsten Beyer. Kurtzman is the co-creator and current showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery and the man in charge of expanding the Star Trek franchise, so no surprise there. Goldsman is also a producer and director on Discovery. Duff is a Discovery executive producer.

Beyer is part of the Discovery writers' room, as well as a Star Trek novelist, and also in charge of coordinating Discovery as a multimedia franchise, keeping the show's writers informed on what the Discovery novels and comics are doing and vice versa. One could speculate as to whether her involvement in the new Picard-centric series also involves coordinating that new series with Discovery.

Perhaps most surprising is Michael Chabon, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Chabon previously announced that he will write one of the upcoming Star Trek: Short Treks episodes leading into the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, so it seems he is all-in with his involvement in the Star Trek franchise.

Kurtzman, Duff, Goldsman, and Chabon will also serve as executive producers on the series, as will Patrick Stewart, Trevor Roth, Heather Kadin, and Rod Roddenberry.

Are you excited for Patrick Stewart's return to Star Trek? Let us know in the comments!