Star Trek: Picard's Patrick Stewart Teases a Changed World

Patrick Stewart returns to the Star Trek universe in Star Trek: Picard in 2020. Stewart stopped by [...]

Patrick Stewart returns to the Star Trek universe in Star Trek: Picard in 2020. Stewart stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his new film, Charlie's Angels. During the appearance, he let Star Trek fans know that the Star Trek universe has changed since the last time Stewart appeared in it. "18 years have passed since The Next Generation crew were on camera, which was our last film, Nemesis. So the world has changed in 18 years. The world of the Federation and Starfleet has changed. Patrick Stewart has changed because he's a lot older than he was when we were last at Paramount making the series and this means that what we have is something different, something new. And I hope there won't be too much disappointment that there is an Enterprise or the crew. It's a changed world and we find Picard… at home on the Château Picard vineyard with his pit bull."

Stewart's comments fit with what producer Alex Kurtzman has said about the series being a different experience than Star Trek: The Next Generation. "You know, we feel a tremendous responsibility to the fans who have loved [the Picard character], and Patrick himself, who took a massive leap of faith with us in choosing to come back and play Picard [after] he said he was done forever," Kurtzman said. "He also said, 'I want to make sure if I come back, if you loved TNG, you'll feel we're honoring it, but this is a very different experience.' This is really a very different experience. It looks incredibly different, the kind of storytelling is different, but if you're someone who's never watched it at all, it's been built for you to come into it and get to be dropped into this very emotional story about this captain who's in the late stage of his life and is dealing with the sum total of all his choices.

"It also has an incredible new crew — incredible, to a person, they're all so wonderful. And we have now started showing it to the studio, and they're thrilled with it, so that gave us a lot more confidence that we've hit the mark. We've now watched five episodes with Patrick and he's thrilled with it too. Because he was so happy with it, it makes us feel like it honored what we promised."

Are you excited about Star Trek: Picard? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard debuts January 23rd on CBS All Access.

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