Star Trek: Picard

• Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard: Retired admiral[6] and former captain of the USS Stargazer, USS Enterprise-D, and USS Enterprise-E. Stewart returns to the role after last portraying the character in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. He felt that at that time his role in the franchise "had run its natural course", but in the years since he was humbled by stories of the impact the character had on the lives of fans and so was now happy "to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times".[7]
• Isa Briones as Dahj:[8][9] A young woman who comes to Picard for help
• Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati:[8][9] A doctor who shares a common goal with Picard
• Santiago Cabrera as Cristobal "Chris" Rios:[10][8] The pilot of Picard's ship, a skilled thief and a former Starfleet officer
• Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker:[10][8] A former Starfleet intelligence officer struggling with substance abuse and Rios' partner
• Harry Treadaway as Narek:[8][9] A Romulan agent who joins Picard's crew in investigating what his people are doing to former Borg drones[11]
• Evan Evagora as Elnor:[8][12] A Romulan refugee who is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and is fiercely loyal to Picard[11]

• Brent Spiner as Data[13][8]
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine[8]
• Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh[8]
• Jonathan Frakes as William Riker[8]
• Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi[8]
• De Niro as Number One: Jean-Luc Picard's dog[14]

In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of the series Star Trek: Discovery, Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series.[17] One of these new series was believed to star Patrick Stewart, reprising his role of Jean-Luc Picard from the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.[18][19] Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman (who worked on the first season of Discovery) were attached to the project.[19]

When CBS first approached him about making more Star Trek series, Kurtzman believed that Picard was the greatest Star Trek captain and included a series featuring the character on his wish list. Despite Stewart's statements that he was done with the franchise, Kurtzman and Goldsman contacted Stewart in late 2017, initially to see if he would be willing to appear in a Star Trek: Short Treks episode.[20] Kurtzman, Goldsman and Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer met with the actor,[5] who took the meeting with the intention of turning the project down, but was intrigued enough by their discussion to ask them for a three-page document outlining their ideas.[5][21] At that time, Goldsman invited novelist Michael Chabon, a friend, to work on the project as well and the four ultimately produced a 34-page document that they sent to Stewart. He organised another meeting with them in March 2018, where he expressed his approval of their pitch. While deciding whether to join the project, Stewart asked Kurtzman that the series be "so different" from previous Star Trek stories, "both what people remember but also not what they're expecting at all, otherwise why do it?"[5] He was also concerned that the series would be "jokey", but received assurances from the project's creative team that it would not be.[21]

On August 4, 2018, Stewart made a surprise appearance at the annual Las Vegas Star Trek Convention to officially announce the series and confirm that he would star in it. Stewart was also set to executive produce the series alongside Kurtzman, Goldsman, Chabon, Discovery's James Duff, Heather Kadin of Kurtzman's production company Secret Hideout, and Rod Roddenberry (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment. Beyer remained part of the creative team as well.[7] The series was expected to premiere in 2019.[22] Kadin revealed in October that the series was intended to be ongoing rather than a limited miniseries, and that its release would not overlap with Discovery or any other new Star Trek series. Kurtzman added that the Picard series would be "its own thing",[23] later elaborating that where Discovery is "a bullet", the Picard series is "a very contemplative show" with its own "rhythm" and more of a "real-world" feeling.[24] CBS CCO David Nevins confirmed in December 2018 that the series was intended to debut on CBS All Access at the end of 2019, after the full release of Discovery's second season and several Short Treks shorts.[25]

Stewart revealed in January 2019 that the series would consist of 10 episodes, and reiterated that the intention was for it to continue for multiple seasons,[21] adding a month later that "we are set up for possibly three years of this show".[26] A production listing in March gave the series' title as Star Trek: Destiny, which CBS had trademarked in 2018.[27] However, the official title was revealed as Star Trek: Picard at CBS's upfront presentation that May.[28] At that time, Kurtzman revealed that the series does not have a traditional showrunner and instead was being "shepherded" by a larger creative team.[29] Chabon was later named the showrunner for the series.[30]

In December 2019, ahead of the series premiere, CBS All Access renewed the series for a 10-episode second season.[2]

An initial series' writers room had begun work by the end of September 2018, and worked alongside Stewart for two weeks.[22][31] The room soon expanded to include a full roster of writers for the series,[31] and they had broken the stories for eight episodes by that December.[24] The series is set 20 years after Stewart's last appearance as Picard in the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).[4] Kurtzman revealed that the series would find the character "radically altered" by the destruction of Romulus several years after the events of Nemesis, as depicted in the film Star Trek (2009).[5] Stewart said the series would tell a single serialized story, and despite taking place at a similar time to flashforwards in the Next Generation finale "All Good Things..." he would not be growing a beard for the series as he did for those scenes.[21]

Kurtzman said the mandate for the series was to make it "a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years", and noted that it was rare for a television series to star an older actor like Stewart. In the series, the character must find his way back to Roddenberry's original optimistic vision for the franchise, which Kurtzman hoped would reinforce that original vision while allowing the character to "go through deep valleys".[29]

With the initial series announcement in August 2018 also came confirmation that Stewart would star in the series as Picard.[7] At the start of March 2019, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd were both set to co-star in the series, with Cabrera being one of the most sought-after actors during the 2019 television pilot season and choosing this series over many other offers.[10] Later in the month, newcomer Evan Evagora was cast as another series regular role.[12] In April, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Isa Briones joined the cast.[9]

Acknowledging that the series would be set further in the future than any previous Star Trek film or series, Kurtzman explained that the production was aiming for a "grounded" approach rather than having things like "crazy floating skyscrapers and all the cliches of science fiction ... we've tried to avoid that, across the board, in the production design and the look of it and the feel of it. It's all about the personal details that you can connect to now, even though it takes place so far in the future."[32]

Production began on April 22, 2019,[33] at Santa Clarita Studios, California, under the working title Drawing Room.[27] In December 2018, the series was granted $15.6 million dollars in tax credits by the California Film Commission for the production to take place in California rather than in Toronto, Ontario, where Discovery is filmed.[34] The first two episodes are directed by Hanelle Culpepper, who previously directed for Discovery and is the first woman to direct the initial episode of a Star Trek series.[16] These first two episodes make up the first "block" of filming for the series, with its 10 episodes split into five blocks total. Jonathan Frakes, who also previously directed for Discovery, directs the second block of episodes and stated his belief that this block system had more to do with amortization than any story-based reasons.[4] Filming concluded on September 1, 2019.[27]