Patrick Stewart hopes that the Picard series lasts for more than one season

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Although the future of the Star Trek franchise on the big-screen is looking somewhat uncertain, the franchise's small-screen empire is quickly growing, and one of several new projects on the horizon is one which will find Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role of Jean-Luc Picard. As it's been over fifteen years since we last saw Patrick Stewart suited up as Picard, I'm quite excited for his return, and it seems that the actor is just as pumped as we are.

While chatting with Yahoo Movies about THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING, Patrick Stewart teased a few details about the as-yet-untitled series, saying that it will be telling one long tale rather than ten separate episodes. "They are writing a 10-hour movie," Stewart said. We learned earlier this month that the series will take place after the destruction of the Romulan Empire, and that Picard's life has been radically altered by that event. Although I had assumed that this project would be a one-off, it seems that Patrick Stewart is game to return once again as he said that they're "hoping for more than one season." I'm down.

Patrick Stewart again explained that he wasn't planning on returning to Star Trek and had only taken a meeting with Alex Kurtzman and his team in order to "seriously and respectfully explain to them why I was turning the project down." Luckily for Kurtzman, the ideas presented at that meeting intrigued the actor and he asked if they could send him a write-up of what they had planned.

To say I was hooked [right away] wouldn’t be quite true, but I was extremely interested, but I still wanted to know more. What I was afraid of was is that in some way, this is going to be jokey. And I don’t want to do that. I respect the work on ‘Next Generation,’ and also it changed my life in every way. And I said, “You know what? I think I’m up for this.” But I asked a lot of questions, and the answers were all very satisfying. I was struck by how clever these people were that I was talking to, who can tell a narrative very well, and seem to be tuned into what an actor might need to hear.

Stewart explained that the series is exciting for him because it excites him as an actor. "Oh, the story, is great… I have to be so careful about what I say or they'll skin me alive if I say the wrong things, but it references the present day, at times, and that’s all I can say," Stewart continued. "I’m not saying we’re in the present day, we’re not, but the world that we find Jean-Luc Picard in is not quite the world that we left him in." The Picard series is expected to debut late 2019.