Despite Jean-Luc Picard receiving an android body at the end of Season 1 of Picard, this new development apparently will not be a major factor in the plot of the second season of the Paramount+ streaming series.
This news was revealed by the writer/producer Akiva Goldsman, who will be doing split duties as the showrunner of Picard in Season 2 while also showrunning the new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Goldsman revealed that the main purpose behind the new body for Picard (besides the obvious connection between Picard's season-long mission to protect synthetic life and him receiving a synthetic body in the end) was to relieve the congenital health condition that Picard had been dealing with since he was on Star Trek: The Next Generation. You see, in the finale of Next Generation, we see an alternate future where Picard is suffering from advanced Irumodic Syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes confusion and delusions before it is eventually fatal. This disorder is why his friends do not believe him when he explains that he has been shifting throughout time.
When the story was resolved, Dr. Beverley Crusher did a scan on Picard in the present to see if he had the disease yet in the present. He did not, but Crusher did discover a small defect in his parietal lobe that could theoretically lead to neurological disorders in the future.
That is precisely what happened to Picard in Season 1 of Picard, as the defect was killing him. He wanted to see his mission through first and luckily, when he succeeded, he was given a synthetic version of his old body, identical in every way but the removal of the fatal defect. He was told that it wouldn't even prolong his life beyond where his body would normally last (had it not been for the defect). James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter asked Goldsman, "Will Picard’s new body impact his character in season two, or does it just not?"
Goldsman replied, "It doesn't. We did fundamentally try to address that at the end of 10. He's not Super Picard. We reset this congenital problem he lived with since Next Gen and gave him the opportunity for rebirth, but it's nothing more than a record as he might have been where [sic] he not here."
So no Terminator Picard in Season 2!
Star Trek: Picard stars Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera and Harry Treadaway. The first season is available on Paramount+.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter