Patrick Stewart Reveals New Star Trek Movie Script Featuring Jean-Luc Picard Is In The Works

With the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard a success, Sir Patrick Stewart is still thinking about what could be next. Even before the final season debuted the Next Generation star was talking about his hopes to return to the big screen as Jean-Luc Picard. Now Stewart has indicated there is an actual project with him in development, including a new script.

Stewart talks new Star Trek script

As a guest in the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, host Josh Horowitz asked Patrick Stewart about his Star Trek hopes and the actor confirmed he was still interested in returning to the big screen as Picard. He then started talking about his experience with the Star Trek movies:

“After we finished recording our seven seasons of Next Generation we made four Star Trek movies of varying qualities, the best one being [First Contact], directed by Jonathan Frakes. He was one of the people who had the most influence on me on the show because of his experience and his understanding of the complexities and how bringing different qualities onto the stage was very, very important in diversity and change.”

As Stewart continued talking about Star Trek movies he dropped a surprise; revealing there is a Star Trek movie script being written with him in mind:

“So it’s an ongoing procedure for me. I heard only last night about a script that is being written, but written specifically with the actor, Patrick [Stewart], to play in it. And I’ve been told to expect to receive it within a week or so. I’m so excited because it sounds like the kind of project where the experimentation that I want to do will be essential for this kind of material. It’s good at 83…”

TrekMovie has confirmed with Josh Horowitz that this interview was recorded in early November as Stewart was out promoting his new memoir, Making It So. This comment from Stewart is the first indication that there is a movie project in development that would include the character of Jean-Luc Picard. Officially Paramount has only confirmed they are developing another film in the Kelvin universe starring Chris Pine (aka “Star Trek 4”), but there have been reports and rumors about other scripts for different Star Trek movies in development at the studio as well.

It is possible that Stewart could be talking about a Star Trek streaming TV movie like the Section 31 film starring Michelle Yeoh which goes into production later this month. Last year it was reported that Paramount+ was looking for Section 31 to be the first of a series of streaming Star Trek movies for Paramount+. It’s possible a streaming movie could be a vehicle to carry on the story of Star Trek: Picard, potentially working as a backdoor pilot for the often-discussed (but not in development) Star Trek: Legacy series envisioned by Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. However, the series finale of Picard ended by putting the focus on the newly rechristened USS Enterprise-G under the command of Captain Seven, played by Jeri Ryan, with a crew of mostly new characters from season 3 of Picard. While Stewart could appear in “Legacy,” it does not appear Jean-Luc Picard would be the focal character.

Stewart also replied “yeah,” when asked by Horowitz if this script would be “a little bit of a different take than what we’ve seen in the last few seasons of Star Trek: Picard.” He then explained how he is motivated to take on new challenges as an actor, reflecting on his work in Picard:

“What was so interesting about Picard, and the main reason why I decided to commit to three seasons of it was that Akiva Goldsman talked to me about the changes that had happened in my life in the last 20 years. And he said, “Were there any?” and of course, I said yes there were lots and lots and new journeys and new experiences and relationships. And he said, “Exactly! Well that has also been Jean-Luc’s experience.” He’s not the same man. He’s no longer captain of the Enterprise. He was made an admiral. It became really desk work, which is not what he ever wanted to do. And now he’s back at home, living on his vinyard and seeming to be reasonably content. All that was an act. All that was Jean-Luc trying to pretend – as I think my father did – that everything was all right. But it wasn’t.

So particularly the last season of Picard was extraordinary to perform because I was continually being faced, because of the wonderful job the writers did, with a different man. There was one wonderful moment I really enjoyed researching when Picard literally didn’t know what to do, how to deal with a situation. He was stunned by it. And watching him having to cope with that realization of ‘I’m old and I can’t work out how to deal with this’ was it was a fascinating process. So I enjoyed that.”