Hot on the heels of Saturday’s surprise announcement of Jean-Luc Picard’s return to Star Trek — and Patrick Stewart’s reprisal of the role — the leadership team behind CBS All Access has shared some insight into how they are approaching the previously-discussed expansion of the Trek franchise moving into 2019.
CBS TV Studios president David Stapf, CBS All Access president Marc DeBevoise and executive VP of Original Content Julie McNamara, who oversee the service for CBS Television Studios, participated in a lengthy discussion on the future of Trek development with Deadline Hollywood at the recent Television Critics’ Association press tour.
The trio first touched upon the planned “expansion” of the Trek universe which was made public back in June, with the rise of Discovery executive producer Alex Kurtzman to franchise overseer and July’s announcement that Star Trek: Short Treks will launch a series of smaller story productions on CBS All Access this fall.
DEADLINE: What are your plans for expanding the Star Trek franchise?
MCNAMARA: We’re looking at limited series for some Trek shows and we are looking at ongoing series for some other Trek shows. We’ve obviously announced the one that’s coming next with Sir Patrick Stewart but we have more in development there.
DEADLINE: Based on the way the first season of Discovery ended, is there a Trek series with Michelle Yeoh in the works?
MCNAMARA: We’ve really talked about virtually all of the characters who popped in Discovery as potential spin-off shows. It’s obviously very much driven by our conversations with Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout and the other creators involved. I wouldn’t say at this point that we are actively pursuing a Michelle Yeoh series but it has been discussed.
DEADLINE: Are we going to see some of the characters that we are going to see in the Star Trek: Short Treks like Rainn Wilson’s Harry Mudd being test trialed so to peak for full-on series consideration?
MCNAMARA: He definitely falls in that category of it could be interesting to build around this character. But, I will say, it hasn’t progressed any further than that.
STAPF: I think what you are asking is are we incubating things potentially, and the answer is Yes and No. There’s not a grand design of “lets plant a Rainn idea and see how that does.” It’s more Secret Hideout and the rest of the Trek brain trust coming to us and saying, “we think this would be really cool, storywise, characterwise.”
DEBEVOISE: And the Shorts will end up being a great way to engage our audience early. The series will be coming back in early ’19 but we’re going to have these Shorts before that.
While the executive trio declined to say if they were looking at bringing back any other former Trek characters to lead television projects — though Stapf laughed at the topic of William Shatner, responding “Never say never” to an inquiry on the Kirk actor — they did give a little more detail on how Stewart was convinced to return to the franchise.
DEADLINE: How did the idea of bringing back Patrick Stewart’s character come about, and how long did it take to get him to do it?
STAPF: It came to us, as do all things Trek now, through Alex Kurtzman, with the idea of, wouldn’t it be cool to do something Next Gen-oriented, and/or get Patrick Stewart and/or any of those iconic Next Gen characters. As Patrick himself has said, he was of the opinion that “I’ve done that character,” but he got a meeting with Alex and some of the other guys and they won him over.
The deal didn’t take that long once he decided to do it.
Moving past the currently-known Trek projects, Stapf stayed vague but voice an opinion that CBS Television Studios needs to become a Star Trek production machine, keeping new content from the franchise rolling out year-round to keep audiences engaged — and subscribed — to the streaming service, with at least one more ongoing television series in the lineup.
(While specific details aren’t yet confirmed, the still-untitled Patrick Stewart series is likely to be a single-season outing.)
DEADLINE: Is it certain that one of the new Trek series will be a spinoff from Discovery, and how big a franchise universe are you looking to build?
STAPF: My goal is that there should be a Star Trek something on all the time on All Access. We know it draws an audience, and Discovery has done quite well.
DEBEVOISE: We started well and we’d love to have a second one.
STAPF: Yes, and as we learned, we want to do it right.
While it’s obvious that the Stewart series will be released through CBS All Access in the United States, the question of international distribution plans is still open. Discovery, of course, is shared to Canada via the Space channel — and through Netflix in all other international regions — the forthcoming Picard series may, or may not, follow that same path.
CBS All Access has been expanding internationally over the recent months, so international viewers may find ongoing Trek releases available through different access points depending on if CAA has made it to particular countries or not.
DEADLINE: Are the Star Trek extensions contractually obligated to go to Netflix internationally per the deal on Discovery?
STAPF: It’s complicated. Some are, some aren’t, depending on how it gets defined as series or a spinoff.
DEADLINE: So, the one announced yesterday with Sir Patrick, that’s a standalone series right?
STAPF: Yes, that’s a new series. Which I think is important to distinguish.
DEADLINE: Are you looking for similar international distribution deals for the new Star Trek to the one you have for Discovery with Netflix or are you looking to retain some international rights as CBS All Access is expanding its footprint to Canada and Australia
STAPF: We’re looking at all of it and have the ability to do that.
Finally, the CBS leadership team also touched upon the aftermath of behind-the-scenes changes at Star Trek: Discovery which occurred earlier this summer, when showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg were unexpectedly ousted from the series after allegations of budget overruns and hostile interactions with their writing staff — and the arrival of longtime TV producer James Duff to Discovery to assist Alex Kurtzman in righting the ship.
DEADLINE: Speaking to that, there have been a lot of behind the scenes changes on Discovery in Season 1 with Bryan Fuller leaving and in Season 2 with Alex Kurtzman becoming the solo showrunner and James Duff joining as an executive producer. Can you talk about that, and how are things on the series now?
MCNAMARA: I think the good news in this most recent situation is that Alex has always been very much involved creatively from early on and very much aware of what was going on in the writers’ room with long arc storytelling and episodic storytelling. He got the vibe of the show we were all trying to create, he’s been on set a lot, he directed the first episode this season.
So, it ended up from that standpoint being pretty seamless. Look, it’s never fun when there is change and people leave, but, in this case, with Alex and bringing in James Duff to help, who is such a pro and a great person, we’ve been able to move forward without much of a hiccup.
In addition to the CBS Television Studios team’s comments on Star Trek, the trio also spend time discussing the forthcoming Jordan Peele-led relaunch of The Twilight Zone, and adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, and other projects on their radar as they push to expand CBS All Access original programming.
The complete interview can be read over at Deadline Hollywood.
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