Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner Hints Some Next Generation Crew May Not Survive

The, but it’s possible that not all of their characters will survive the experience. While the TNG cast has teased on multiple occasions that there may be more Star Trek adventures in their future, showrunner Terry Matalas can’t guarantee the safety of the former Enterprise-D senior crew. Matalas confirmed this in a new interview with SFX Magazine, where he discusses the future of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew post-Star Trek: Picard‘s finale. In the interview, he does note that should a character fall in the season, Star Trek’s sci-fi setting means you never know when they might come back.

“They certainly did have a great time and they certainly all would love to do this again,” Matalas says of the returning Next Generation cast. “I think there are ways of seeing these characters again, in a kind of Next, Next Generation story. Not all these characters – I’m not gonna say they all necessarily make it out safely of season three. But I will say that in science fiction, there are always ways of seeing people again. So of course, who wouldn’t want to do this forever?”

But for Matalas, Picard‘s final season is about seeing those Next Generation characters pass the torch to their successors. Whether or not The Next Generation crew’s story continues after that is really, in his mind, up to the Star Trek fans.

“This season is very much a passing of the torch to the next generation,” Matalas says of Star Trek: Picard‘s final season. “So it will really be up to the fans to decide if they want to see more. Star Trek has always been up to the fans. The fans brought back the original series characters into feature films and conventions and kept it alive, it will have to be the same here. So we’ll see.” You heard the man. If anyone messes this up, words will be had.”

This is all coming out just ahead of the final . Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will then debut on Paramount+ on February 16th. Star Trek: Picard‘s first two seasons, as well as all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, are streaming now on Paramount+.