Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner Reveals What Happened to Khan TV Series

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas has launched one of the franchise’s most ambitious chapters yet, bringing the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation back together for the first time in decades for a bold and thrilling new adventure. However, as Picard Season 3 continues to introduce some intriguing new elements to the franchise, what may be even more intriguing is the latest interview from Terry Matalas, in which he reveals that before he returned to the franchise to co-run Star Trek: Picard Season 2, he had a very different Star Trek TV series in his sights: the infamous Khan prequel TV series! 

The latest issue of Star Trek Explorer features an interview with Terry Matalas, in which he dropped the revealing backstory of how he was supposed to run the Khan series: 

“When I finished editing our 12 Monkeys [TV series] finale, they had just started shooting Discovery. I’d heard through the grapevine they wanted to continue to develop more Star Trek. I reached out to my agent and said, ‘Please, I’d love to sit down and talk Star Trek with Secret Hideout.’ 

I met over there and, at the time, they were developing a Khan series. Akiva (Goldsman) and I talked, and, if it went, I was going to go run that. But, instead, Picard happened… and then I got a call from Akiva saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to need some help doing Picard Season two… And then for season three, I want to hand it over to you.’ I was extremely lucky to be working with that incredible group of writers…” 

A lot of Star Trek fans have been critical of Star Trek: Picard, which remains one of the more divisive series in Paramount’s current Star Trek TV Universe. That situation is not likely to get any better after this interview, as some fans will no doubt be in an uproar over the notion that they got Picard instead of Khan. Then again, the same showrunner (Matalas) would’ve been doing the Khan series, so fans shouldn’t let their fantasies run too rampant. 

Ultimately, the Star Trek Khan TV series was re-fitted into the Star Trek: Khan — Ceti Alpha V podcast, under franchise movie writer/director Nick Meyers. That series will examine what happened on Ceti Alpha V after Kirk marooned Khan and co. on that world after Star Trek TOS, until their revenge bid in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  

“Nick made the definitive Trek movie when he made Wrath, and we’ve all been standing in its shadow since,” said Star Trek Universe producer Alex Kurtzman. “Forty years have offered him a lot of perspective on these extraordinary characters and the way they’ve impacted generations of fans. Now he’s come up with something as surprising, gripping, and emotional as the original, and it’s a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to.”

Star Trek: Picard’s Final Season is now streaming on Paramount+.