Star Trek: CBS President Explains Why Picard-Spinoff Legacy Hasn't Been Greenlit

For about a year, fans have been hoping for a Picard spinoff that would allow the characters of the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe to continue on. The popularity -- among both fans and cast -- of the final season of Picard led to producers, actors, and even some Paramount+ executives at least entertaining the idea publicly, with the title Star Trek: Legacy tied to the prospective project. Of course, since then, Paramount+ has dumped most of its Star Trek catalog, licensing movies and shows out to other streamers to generate some revenue for the streaming platform and cancelling Star Trek: Prodigy (which, improbably, came back to life at Netflix).

In a new interview, CBS President George Cheeks said that the changes made to the Star Trek lineup shouldn't worry fans about the future of the franchise. Rather, the network is working with executive producer Alex Kurtzman to figure out a plan to deploy the various shows and projects.

"Star Trek remains one of the most important franchises for Paramount Global, and Paramount+ specifically," Cheeks told Vulture. "There's so much great opportunity with the franchise, and it's really about the cadence and the timeline of it. We don't want to offer up all these amazing premium drama series at once. We want to time it out appropriately. Luckily, we have this incredible partner in Alex Kurtzman, and we all work together to sort of manage long-range planning across many years, to figure out what's the right cadence for dropping new Star Trek series. So there's a lot we're focused on, but it should not suggest to you [a scaling back]. There is a tremendous amount of focus and prioritizing of the Star Trek franchise."

At the end of Picard, fan-favorite characters Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) were promoted to the new captain of the Enterprise-G and its First Officer, respectively, while Jean-Luc Picard's son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers) was given a special liaison position, and other legacy characters (like Geordi La Forge's daughters) were along for the ride. 

Last year, Kurtzman said the powers that be at Paramount "are watching these swells in fan enthusiasm closely. So when it comes to the prospect of the Star Trek: Legacy spinoff show: Anything is possible. We've heard the fans loud and clear. There's obviously more story to tell. So, we'll see."

By January, star Michelle Hurd still didn't have any official word on the project, but she didn't seem too worried, since it was clear there was a production queue already in place before Legacy became an idea that could be followed-up on.

"I love Raffi. She's my favorite character," Hurd told TV Insider. "We have hands, fingers, everything's crossed for Star Trek: Legacy. I know that right now they're working on Section 31 for Michelle Yeoh. And then they're going to do Starfleet Academy. That's going to be a series. And then if the fans still want it, they'll start working on Star Trek: Legacy."