Star Trek: Picard Series Is a Psychological Character Study Says Producer Alex Kurtzman

Now that the second season of Star Trek: Discovery has ended, all eyes in Star Trek fandom are set on the upcoming series focused on Jean-Luc Picard. Sir Patrick Stewart returns to the role he originated in Star Trek: The Next Generation for what is being described as a slower, more character-focused series.

The Los Angeles Times ran a feature on the Star Trek television franchise as it is expanding under the leadership of producer Alex Kurtzman. Of the still-untitled Picard series, Kurtzman says, "The mandate was to make it a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years. There are so few shows that allow a significantly older protagonist to be the driver."

Kurtzman also suggests that the show would have a darkness to it and that Picard's later years may not have ended up the way he or anyone else expected. "What happens when circumstances have conspired to not give him the happiest of endings?" Kurtzman teased. "Hopefully, it's a reinforcement of [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry's vision of optimism. He's going to have to go through deep valleys to get back to the light."

Kurtzman also said that the style of the series will be distinctly different from the fast-paced, action and effects-heavy Discovery. "It'll be very different than Discovery," he says. "It'll be slower, more meditative. It speaks to the rainbow of colors we're playing within all these different shows."

The Picard series began filming in California in April. Hanelle Culpepper is directing the first two episodes. Kurtzman told ComicBook.com at the TCA 2019 Winter Press Tour about the group of creatives working on the series how the new show differs from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

"Everybody in that room loves Jean-Luc Picard very deeply, and obviously, the benefit that we have is that Jean-Luc Picard is in the room with us," Kurtzman said. "And so, as we're breaking story, we're asking ourselves, 'How do we live to the spirit, and to the character, and for the tone that Next Gen set, but also make it something very, very different in other ways?' And Patrick was really clear with us from 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.

"And so, the question becomes, 'What has happened to him in that period of time? Have there been occurrences that forced 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?' And those are the big questions that we're asking."

Are you excited to see the new Picard series? Let us know in the comments. The Picard series is expected to premiere in late 2019 on CBS All Access.

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