We're finally getting our first look at Patrick Stewart's return to the 24th century and an official title - Star Trek: Picard. The CBS All Access series is set to launch late this year, the streaming service's second ongoing Star Trek series following Star Trek: Discovery.
Stewart shocked fans when he announced he would be returning to Star Trek in August 2018 at a convention in Las Vegas. Details about the series have been slim, but we know it will take place about 20 years after Picard's last onscreen appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis, and that Picard is likely no longer a Starfleet captain. It was also stated that the destruction of Romulus would play a key role in the series.
Now we're getting our first look at the older Picard, as well as the title of the series. Per TrekCore, CBS announced today the series is simply called Star Trek: Picard. Our first glimpse of the man himself shows Picard in a non-Starfleet uniform. Further, the official logo was revealed. Take a look at both below.
Stewart's not making his return to the Star Trek universe alone; Jonathan Frakes - who played Enterprise first officer Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Picard's right hand man - will be boarding Picard as a director. We also know Picard will have a new supporting cast, featuring the likes of Alison Pill and Harry Treadaway.
Beyond a cast list and timeframe, Star Trek: Picard is still largely a mystery. Amazingly, it will be the first Star Trek project to move the franchise timeline forward since Nemesis; every Star Trek film and television series since has either been a prequel or an alternate universe past. Longtime Star Trek fans are not only salivating at the prospect of finding out how Jean-Luc Picard's life has turned out, but also at seeing how the Federation and the larger Star Trek universe has progressed since we last saw it.
Star Trek: Picard, along with Discovery, is sure to be a cornerstone of CBS's plans for the franchise going forward. Stewart has said he's committed to multiple seasons of the series, and he is the biggest star currently associated with the nascent CBS All Access streaming service by a significant margin (the show will stream internationally via Amazon Prime). There's still no official release date, but the show is slated for a late 2019 debut.
We may not have much in the way of plot details yet, but with an official title and our first glimpse of the good captain, Star Trek: Picard feels real and imminent in an entirely new way.
Source: TrekCore, Kate Arthur/Twitter, Star Trek