Star Trek: Picard Trailer Reveals Jean-Luc’s New Starfleet Rank

CBS All Access released the first teaser trailer for Star Trek: Picard on Thursday. For years, fans watched Patrick Stewart play Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the movies that followed. Picard’s distinguished service in Starfleet, according to the Picard trailer, led him to be promoted to admiral. However, after leading a rescue armada on one of Starfleet’s most important missions, Picard left Starfleet. The circumstances of Picard’s departure remain unknown, but the trailer suggests it will be the topic of some discussion between Picard and another party when the new series debuts sometime later this year.

Stewart’s Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes will direct the third and fourth episodes of Star Trek: Picard. Frakes shared a photo of his reunion with Stewart as he began work on Picard. In February, Frakes teased that Picard would no longer be a captain in the new series.

“Patrick isn’t playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he’s done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show,” Frakes said. “That’s about the only thing I do know about the show. Patrick and I had a steak dinner a couple of weeks ago and this man, who I’ve known for 31 years now, is so excited about this show he’s like a little kid. It’s fabulous! He’s thrilled and excited to be invited into the writer’s room and he’s a producer on the show and he’s part of the development of the story arc. It’s terrific. I mean he is a guy who is fully engaged.”

Stewart teased this change for Picard himself when he announced Star Trek: Picard at last year’s Star Trek: Las Vegas convention. “He may not be a captain anymore,” Stewart said. “He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognize and know so well. It may be a very different individual. Someone who has been changed by his experiences. 20 years will have passed…We have no scripts as yet, we’re just talking, talking, talking storylines. It will be, I promise you, I guarantee it, something very, very different, but it will come to you with the same passion and determination and love of the material and love of our followers and our fans exactly as we had it before.”

What do you think of the new Star Trek: Picard trailer? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard will premiere on CBS All Access in late 2019.