The Star Trek: Discovery cast and crew just finished headlining a massive Season 2 premiere in New York City, and while we’ve got plenty of interviews yet to come, we’ve got some breaking news from franchise producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin from the event.
First, we asked Discovery showrunner and overall franchise boss Alex Kurtzman about the news, which broke last week, on how including the Prime Timeline events from Star Trek (2009) may open up the world of Star Trek films — managed by Paramount Pictures — to the television teams, overseen by CBS.
TREKCORE: With the upcoming Picard series now set after the destruction of Romulus, how much access with that show’s writers room have to other material from the Star Trek films?
ALEX KURTZMAN: Well since I wrote the 2009 film, I’m pretty familiar with it – but in terms of like, legality?
TREKCORE: Yeah, are you allowed to explore the film stuff, rights-wise?
KURTZMAN: I think we’ll see over the next couple of months. It’s a conversation. Obviously, it would be great; it’s all canon, right? So it’d be great to figure out a way to be consistent.
TREKCORE: When should we expect to see the Picard show?
KURTZMAN: We’ll be seeing the Picard show first [before the other new announced series], and our hope is that we do it at the end of the year. It’s possible with production scheduling, it could be the very beginning of next year, but it’ll be within a close window of that.
We also asked franchise executive producer Heather Kadin about how centering a series around Mirror Universe refugee — and new Section 31 agent — Philippa Georgiou might fit into the world of Trek as we know it… and as part of her response, she gave us some first hints to the future of Discovery.
TREKCORE: How do you see a character like ‘evil’ Mirror Georgiou fitting into the overall optimism of the Star Trek universe?
HEATHER KADIN: What’s great about her, even though yes, she’s quote-unquote ‘evil,’ she’s still within our world that’s been created. I think so much of her ‘evilness’ comes from the deliciousness of her enjoyment of the character, and as an actress playing the role [of prime Georgiou].
You should never feel like, “Meanwhile, on a whole other show…” It really feels of a piece.
TREKCORE: Is there any kind of timeline for when we might see [the Section 31 show]?
KADIN: Not officially, but she’ll be in ‘Discovery’ Season 3.
[…]
NEARBY INTERVIEWER LEANS IN:Did you say Georgiou was in Season 3?
TREKCORE: Season 2?
KADIN: And Season 3, yes.
TREKCORE: Oh!
KADIN: Yes.
Here’s the audio from the last portion of the conversation; the brief gap is excised, unrelated discussion. (Kadin is first to speak.)
Just to be clear, there’s been no official announcement from CBS about extending Star Trek: Discovery for another year, but it’s clear from Kadin’s comments that the production team behind the show is already looking ahead to another year of Discovery adventures, at least part of which will include Michelle Yeoh’s character for more black-ops missions.
Last season, Discovery was renewed for Season 2 after just a few episodes, so it’s possible official word on Season 3 could be coming within the next several weeks. (We’ve reached out to CBS for comment.)
We’ve got lots more to bring you from the New York premiere in the coming days, so keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest updates on Discovery!