Patrick Stewart on Joining The New Picard STAR TREK Series and Says It Will Be a 10-Hour Movie
One of the TV projects that I’m most excited about that’s coming is the new Star Trek series that will focus on Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The last time we saw Patrick Stewart in the role was in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, and after that, he had no intentions of returning to the role.
He explains that while he loved the character Picard, it was hard for him to find other work because all people saw was Picard. So, he made the choice to move on… until he was pitched this new series. He just couldn’t say no to it!
When the Picard project was officially announced, Stewart said, “It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard.” Then in a recent interview with Yahoo, the actor talked about why he decided to come back and reprise his role:
“I agreed to a meeting with the people who were going to produce this new version of Star Trek only because I wanted to seriously and respectfully explain to them why I was turning the project down. I heard just enough to realize this was something very unusual, and I was intrigued. What I was afraid of was … this was going to be jokey, and I didn’t want to do that.’ I asked a lot of questions and the answers were all very satisfying.”
I love that he went in to turn the project down and left excited to be a part of it. This has seriously got to be something special. As far as the story goes, all we really know at this point is that it will take place after the destruction of the Romulan Empire, an event that throws Picard’s life into turmoil.
Stewart went on to say that this isn’t going to be an episodic type series like Star Trek: The Next Generation was. He explains that “They are writing a 10-hour movie,” and that they hope that it will get more than only one season. One other interesting thing that has been revealed is that Picard will actually look younger than the last time we saw him play old Picard. When teasing the story, Stewart said:
“What we have coming up is exciting. It’s exciting for me because it excites me as an actor. Oh, the story is great. And – I could be so careful what I say or they’ll skin me alive if I say the wrong things. But it has – it references the present day at times, and that’s all I can say, really. I’m not saying we are 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....
[In “All Good Things”] I grew a beard, and they made me up old. I looked older then, eighteen years ago, than – I don’t think I am saying too much – than I will in the upcoming series… Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart are the same age.
The more I hear about this series the more excited I get. It’s going to be interesting to see what Alex Kurtzman and his creative team have come up with.