CBS’ CEO George Cheeks isn’t ruling it out, but “it’s really about the cadence and the timeline of it.”
Paramount+ has a number of Star Trek projects in the works, but the proposed Star Trek: Legacy spin-off of Picard has yet to get the green light — despite the wishes of fans and creatives. A new interview with CBS CEO George Cheeks sheds some light on the matter, suggesting that the go-ahead for any future Trek projects is all about timing. In a conversation with Vulture, when asked about an official go-ahead for Legacy and the future of Trek at the streamer, given the recent cancellation of Star Trek: Discovery and the reassignment of Star Trek: Prodigy to Netflix, Cheeks gave the following answer:
“Star Trek remains one of the most important franchises for Paramount Global, and Paramount+ specifically. There’s so much great opportunity with the franchise, and it’s really about the cadence and the timeline of it. We don’t want to offer up all these amazing premium drama series at once. We want to time it out appropriately.
Luckily, we have this incredible partner in Alex Kurtzman , and we all work together to sort of manage long-range planning across many years, to figure out what’s the right cadence for dropping new Star Trek series. So there’s a lot we’re focused on, but it should not suggest to you [a scaling back]. There is a tremendous amount of focus and prioritizing of the Star Trek franchise.”
There are currently more official Star Trek projects in the works than ever before. Two live-action series are in production; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently filming its third season, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is in the pre-production stage. The fifth season of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks is in the works, as is the first-ever Star Trek TV movie, Section 31. Prodigy, although it is no longer available on Paramount, is currently completing post-production on its second season, which will be released on Netflix this year.
What Is ‘Star Trek: Legacy’?
While much of Picard’s final season focused on reuniting the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation for one final adventure to save the Federation, the series also set up a potential “next Next Generation” of characters who could propel the franchise into the future.
The series ended with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a former Borg drone introduced in Star Trek: Voyager, being given command of the newly-rechristened USS Enterprise-G. Other crew members include Picard characters Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), the son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher; and Geordi La Forge’s daughter, Sidney LaForge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). The series’ final episode ended on a potential teaser, as the godlike Q (John De Lancie) appears before Crusher, telling him that his “trial,” much like the one he subjected Picard to over the course of Next Generation’s seven seasons, had just begun.
Picard’s third-season showrunner, Terry Matalas, has noted his eagerness to continue the story with a Legacy spin-off, as have members of the show’s proposed cast. Fans, likewise, have responded with a letter-writing campaign to Paramount. Speleers is also confident that the series will happen if fans stay “noisy about it.”
