Patrick Stewart has officially set to work on the Picard-led Star Trek series that he's starring in for CBS All Access. The actor became a sci-fi icon thanks to his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he played across all 176 episodes of the show. Stewart later went on to reprise the character for a handful of movies, culminating with 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis - a critical and box office misfire that, in turn, became the last film to feature The Next Generation cast together.

Since then, however, Stewart has provided the voice for Picard in a couple of Star Trek video games, as well as a few animated appearances on comedy series like Robot Chicken and Family Guy. The actor has never entirely ruled out his return to the role in live-action either and, just last year, said he would love to play Picard again in the Star Trek film that Quentin Tarantino is currently developing. Of course, that was before last month's announcement that Stewart will be starring in a Picard TV series.

Related: How Patrick Stewart's Star Trek Return Happened at CBS All Access

Pre-production on the as-yet untitled Picard series is now fully underway, as Stewart himself revealed via his Twitter account. The actor confirmed the news by posting the following photo of himself and the series' producers together, as part of a larger tweet where he teased simply that "The journey has begun".

Stewart is joined in this photo by the Picard TV show's producers Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson and James Duff. Goldsman and Beyer were both creatively involved on the first season of CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery and Duff recently joined Discovery as an executive producer, after showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts were removed for (reportedly) fostering an abusive work environment. Pendleton-Thompson and Chabon are themselves newcomers to the Star Trek franchise, though the latter is far from a stranger to pop genre fare - having previously cowritten Sony's Spider-Man 2 and Disney's John Carter movie.

It's certainly exciting to see Stewart preparing to play Picard again, even with so few details available for his upcoming series right now. The Star Trek franchise has continued to evolve its progressive themes and outlook since The Next Generation went off the air, so it will be interesting to see how this new show reflects that with its own narrative about Picard's twilight years. If nothing else, it's nice to know that Stewart will get the chance to conclude his run as Jean-Luc on a higher note than Nemesis did.

MORE: Star Trek: Discovery Casts Young Spock

We will bring you more details on the Picard Star Trek TV show as they become available.

Source: Patrick Stewart