‘Picard’ Season 3 Announced: What Can We Expect?
With all the talk on everyone’s lips about the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi and the release of the Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga on consoles, coupled with the current run of Moon Knight on Disney+ and the impending release of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, Star Trek has been slowly moving under the radar like a Klingon Bird of Prey. Not to be outdone, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is a prequel of sorts to the original series as it focuses on Captain Christopher Pike, has its own release coming, but a couple of other properties from the world of Trek, including animated series Lower Decks and critical series Prodigy, have enjoyed some success with fans and critics alike.
However, for fans of a certain age, Picard has been a joy for those who are fans of The Next Generation series, and we received a great piece of news this past week with the release of a teaser trailer for Picard season 3. Not only are we excited as fans because we are not only still in the middle of the current season, but they have announced the cast for the upcoming series, and it is a doozy!
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The trailer opens with Captain Jean-Luc Picard sitting at his desk in his chateau, writing what appears to be an invitation or letter. The voiceover gives us some sound bytes from his former crewmates of the USS Enterprise D. We hear Geordi LaForge, Worf, Data, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, and his number one, Will Riker. In theme, tying the audio together is about answering the call to space or going out for “one last ride .”The trailer ends with Picard and Riker holding phasers about to get into something exciting and cuts to announce all of the original actors from The Next Generation are returning for the third season.
As a fan of The Next Generation, this reunion could not make me more excited to see the crew returning. Some were probably surprised to see a season three announcement so quickly, but filming for season 3 began the week after season 2 finished filming back in mid-2021 and officially wrapped filming back on March 8, thanks to a tweet from executive producer and writer Christopher Monfette.
But what can we expect from the third season? As we see in the tweet from Monfette, we are looking at a third and final season, so we are going to be closing the chapter on the life that is Picard. And it would seem natural that in a swan song, we would be bringing back those close to Picard. In the first season, Captain (I mean Admiral) Picard is still grasping the death of Data in Star Trek: Nemesis and the events of the Star Trek movie from 2009 with the destruction of Vulcan and what ultimately became the KELVIN timeline in the convoluted Star Trek universe.
And so far in season 2, Admiral Picard is trying to undo a mess Q has once again placed him in. There are any number of those who probably wouldn’t mind taking one last swing at the crew of the enterprise, and certainly, with only a few more episodes to go in season 2, I wouldn’t be surprised by who we see as the bad guy, and if showrunner Terry Matalas is to be believed, we aren’t too far off. In an interview, he says:
I think it’s shaping up to be a great season of television. It’s incredibly different from the two seasons and possibly features one of the all-time greatest Star Trek villain performances we’ve seen to date. But I don’t want to oversell it in the early stages! There are miles yet to go. But I think–I hope – we’re concluding Picard’s story in the best, most appropriate, most satisfying way. I can’t wait for fans to see what we have in store.
In addition to the return of the Enterprise crew, we do know that the crew of the La Sirena’s is returning as well, with Seven of Nine herself, Jeri Ryan confirming that wrapping was done as well on March 8.
Patrick Stewart is no stranger to grand finales for his defining characters. His death and lead up to his death in Logan were undoubtedly a fantastic way to close the chapter on a role, and hopefully, we get this type of ending for his time with Star Trek, and ultimately, we will see a closing of the crew from The Next Generation leave on a note equivalent to my personal favorite Trek movie, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
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