Star Trek: Patrick Stewart Says Picard Series Is Like a 10-Hour Movie

When Patrick Stewart returns to Jean-Luc Picard for a new CBS All Access Star Trek series, fans should expect something with a filmic quality to it.

Speaking to Yahoo about the show, Stewart says “They are writing a 10-hour movie.” That seems to suggest that the show’s first season will be 10 episodes long.

He also offered that this is not necessarily a limited series, noting that “We’re hoping for more than one season.”

Stewart’s comments echo those offered by the show’s producers, Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin, months ago.

Very few details about the new Picard series have been revealed. Kurtzman did note that Picard’s life will have been affected by the destruction of Romulus, seen in the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie. Stewart’s Next Generation co-star and director Jonathan Frakes suggested that Picard will no longer be a Star Trek captain in the series.

Stewart announced his return to his iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation character at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention in 2018.

“I was startled, stunned, and utterly disbelieving because never for one moment had I imagined this succession of audition at Paramount would ever lead to anything at all, and here, now, I was,” Stewart told the crowd, reflecting on being cast as Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. “What I didn’t’ know either was I was on the very, very brink, the edge of something that would touch every corner of my life. Every single corner. Of course career, emotional, domestic, home, everything was going to be affected by it.

“He may not be a captain anymore. 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.”

Stewart also released a statement about the new series on social media.

“I will always be very proud to have been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002, I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course,” Stewart wrote. “It is, therefore, an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Seeking out new life for him, when I thought that life was over.”

The new Star Trek Picard series is expected to premiere on CBS All Access in late 2019.