Last fall, Star Trek fans were stunned by the news that Patrick Stewart was returning to the franchise to headline a new TV series as Jean-Luc Picard and at last, the time has come for the show to go before the cameras. Today – that’s Monday, April 23rd – officially marked the first day of production on the upcoming CBS All Access project.
This morning, writer Michael Chabon shared a snap of his chair on set, along with the caption: “First day! #untitledpicardproject.” Curiously, the acclaimed author who’s recently joined the Star Trek writing team soon deleted his original post, but thankfully, Twitter account @TheTrekCentral had the sense to save a screenshot of it beforehand.
It’s curious that the writer removed his photo as it seems like Chabon was very careful to not give away anything about the show. He even made sure to avoid putting the title in his caption. Perhaps there’s just a zero-tolerance social media policy on sharing any pics from set to keep spoilers to a minimum? Or maybe there’s a big spoiler hiding in the pic that Chabon only spotted after posting. Those with eagle eyes among you, feel free to give it a closer inspection.
Stewart’s Trek return – which is definitely not titled Picard – won’t bring back any other Next Generation stars but will instead surround the former captain of the Enterprise-D with a fresh cast of characters. Stewart will be joined by Allison Pill, Harry Treadaway, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd, while filming is set to take place in California.
As for the plot, we know that the series will follow on from the destruction or Romulus, as depicted in the opening of 2009’s Star Trek movie, and take place about 20 years after the events of TNG. It’s also been teased that Picard will be a changed man who’s left Starfleet behind him. No release date has been scheduled just yet, but we’d imagine a slot in early 2020. As always, watch this space for more.