Cr: Bill Burke/CBS © 2018 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.(LAS VEGAS) — Welcome back, Captain Picard.
Patrick Stewart announced this weekend at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention that he’ll be reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series for CBS All Access.
Stewart, 78, explained that he’s been humbled to hear stories over the years about how Star Trek: The Next Generation, on which he played USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, inspired and even saved people’s lives. He said it’s for that reason that he’s returning to the franchise.
“It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him,” he wrote in a tweet after the announcement.
He goes on to explain that when he left the character in 2002 — in the final Next Generation spinoff film Star Trek: Nemesis — he felt his character had run “its natural course,” but he’s now excited to “research and experience what comforting and reforming light might shine on these often very dark times.”
Though not much has been revealed about the new series, it’s expected to follow Picard’s next chapter following his time on the Enterprise. It’s also known that the show will be run by Star Trek: Discovery co-creator/executive producer Alex Kurtzman.
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for seven seasons, ending production in 1999. Stewart also played Picard in four spin-off films.
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