CBS: Picard STAR TREK Series Aiming for Late 2019 Debut

Today at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, newly-minted CBS chief creative officer David Nevins spoke to investors on a number of topics concerning the television studio — ranging from programming inquiries about their Showtime cable network to the growth of CBS All Access in 2019 — and he shared a few thoughts on the status of the expanding modern Star Trek franchise.

The executive spoke about how putting Discovery (and the announced subsequent shows, Star Trek: Lower Decks and the still-unnamed Picard series) on the CBS All Access streaming platform was a “brand-defining decision,” leading the OTT service to a slate of “mainstream but upbeat, positive sci-fi.”

When asked about how CBS All Access subscriber growth will be targeted for expansion as the service moves into 2019, Nevins mentioned a number of the planned shows coming next year (including Jordan Peele’s new take on The Twilight Zone), and the next round of Star Trek programming became part of the conversation.

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2, in January, is in a great place. There’s huge anticipation for ‘Picard’ — that’s one of the most-loved ‘Star Trek’ characters of all time, [played by] Patrick Stewart. That’ll be at the end of the year [2019], so there will be something [on the schedule] there.

And then we’re doing these short films [‘Short Treks’] in between.

While series producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin indicated that full production on the Picard series would kick off next spring, this comment from Nevins is the first clear window for the arrival of the Picard series that’s come from CBS’s leadership.

Unfortunately, the topic of Star Trek: Lower Decks didn’t surface during the 40-minute presentation, perhaps indicating that the upcoming animated series is on a much longer pre-production path than the Picard series, which has had an operating writers room for a few months now.

Should we learn any more about when either of the two still-unscheduled Trek series will beaming to subscribers, we’ll certainly let you know — but in the meantime, we’ve got the next Discovery “Short Trek” beaming down this week for viewers in the US and Canada.