The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard is on Paramount Plus February 16. Patrick Stewart plays retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.
Terry Matalas, showrunner and executive producer, spoke about why the show is only lasting for three seasons at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour last month. “One of the north stars that we were following was that Jean-Luc Picard and his Next Generation cast really never got a final sendoff,” he said. “It felt like, after [film] Star Trek: Nemesis, there wanted to be one more final story. And we were faced with a really unique opportunity to do one last season, telling a Picard story, first and foremost, a very personal story. And how better to end that journey than to look back at the beginning and to bring his friends and family from Star Trek: The Next Generation?”
Alex Kurtzman, executive producer, did not say for sure Picard is ending after season three. “If the show blows the doors off the place, as we certainly are hoping it would. — and we're very, very proud of season three — who knows?” he said.
Stewart said he could be convinced to keep playing the character. “If we can maintain the work that we did on season one, two and three of Picard, then absolutely, yes, because there is still enormous potential for narrative in what we've been doing,” he said.
Paramount Plus’s Star Trek originals also include Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Star Trek: Picard began on CBS All Access back in 2020.
Stewart was hardly a Trekkie when he was first asked about playing Picard, though his children were a different story. “I remember coming home after matinees from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre just in time to be able to give my kids their supper and read to them and put them to bed before going back to do an evening performance,” he said. “And I would find that they were watching this thing on television with these guys in colored T-shirts. And that's all I remember. I knew nothing about it.” ■
