This past summer, Star Trek fans were positively shocked to learn that Patrick Stewart will be reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard in a new series airing on CBS All Access.
Executive producer Alex Kurtzman, who oversees all new Star Trek programming for CBS, revealed how he and the writers convinced the actor to return to the franchise, sixteen years since his last appearance in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis.
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"We proposed it to him, he sat there and listening very thoughtfully as he does, said, ‘Thank you, let me think about it,'" explained Kurtzman in an interview with Variety. "We thought we failed. But on Monday his agent called and said, ‘He’s interested and he’d like to know more and can you write down what you had.'”
Kurtzman and the writers expanded their four-page pitch to the veteran actor into a 34-page treatment before sending it to Stewart, with the new series reportedly exploring how the dissolution of the Romulan Empire has personally impacted the Starfleet captain.
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The new Star Trek series starring Patrick Stewart as Picard, debuting sometime in late 2019 on CBS All Access, is reportedly set 20 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and will follow an older Jean-Luc who is in a new phase of life.