User:Adamstom.97/sandbox/3

Star Trek: Legacy is a planned American science fiction television series created by Terry Matalas for the streaming service Paramount+. It is intended to be the 13th Star Trek series and part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. A continuation of Star Trek: Picard, it follows Captain Seven of Nine and the crew of the starship Enterprise in the 25th century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions throughout the galaxy.

A spin-off or continuation of Picard was first mentioned in January 2022, and was discussed by cast and crew members over the next year. Matalas—the showrunner of Picard third and final season—confirmed his interest in the idea and suggested the title Star Trek: Legacy in February 2023, but the series was not in development at that time.

Star Trek: Legacy is expected to be released on the streaming service Paramount+.

Premise
Star Trek: Legacy follows Captain Seven of Nine and the crew of the starship Enterprise in the 25th century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions throughout the galaxy.

Background
In August 2018, Patrick Stewart announced that he would be reprising his role of Jean-Luc Picard from the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and other Star Trek media for a new series, titled Star Trek: Picard. Michael Chabon was the showrunner for the first season, which premiered on CBS All Access in January 2019. The creative team discussed not bringing back any other characters from The Next Generation to allow Picard to stand alone, but they wanted to be respectful to longtime Star Trek fans and felt they were missing opportunities by not including certain characters, so they decided to add some returning guests.

Terry Matalas joined the series as an executive producer in January 2020 to fill the void that would be created by Chabon's planned departure later that year. Matalas and Akiva Goldsman took over as co-showrunners for the second season, which was released on the expanded and rebranded streaming service Paramount+. Matalas was sole showrunner for the third and final season, which he designed to be a "send off" for Picard and the rest of The Next Generation main cast: LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn as Worf, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, and Brent Spiner as Data. The season introduces several children of the Next Generation characters: Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut and Burton's daughter Mica portrayed La Forge's daughters Sidney and Alandra, while Ed Speleers was cast as Jack Crusher, the son of Picard and Beverly Crusher. Additionally, Riker and Troi's daughter Kestra was portrayed by Lulu Wilson in the first season of Picard and had joined Starfleet Academy by the start of the third season.

Interest and speculation
Goldsman stated in January 2022, during production on the second and third seasons of Picard, that elements of the series could be explored more in a potential spin-off series. Matalas also expressed interest in continuing to explore Picard 25th century setting beyond its three seasons, opining that this time period was the "present day of Star Trek... what's going on in that particular world is very important to me". By that May, some fans had begun championing a spin-off series featuring Picard co-stars Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker). Matalas said he was "not just supporting, [but] spearheading" the idea, which both actresses also expressed interest in. He added that there were other so-called "legacy characters" from The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that he did not have time to explore in Picard third season.

Frakes stated in November that the series was "ripe for a continuation of some version of what we've established in the show. Not more Picard, but certainly, Next Gen is alive and well." After his positive experience working with Matalas on Picard, he was interested in having a recurring role in the potential spin-off series and also in being an executive producer and the producing director if it was made in Los Angeles. McFadden said the Next Generation cast were excited to continue in their roles after the third season. In January 2023, Star Trek franchise producer Alex Kurtzman said it was possible for Picard to continue beyond the third season. The next month, Matalas reiterated that the third season was intended to be "the final voyage" of the Next Generation main cast, but a "Next, Next Generation" series could continue with the season's new young cast interacting with legacy characters from The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. He suggested the possible title Star Trek: Legacy, which he previously said would be a more apt title for the third season of Picard due to the number of Next Generation cast members in it. Levar Burton said he would be happy if he did not return to his role after the third season because he felt it "put a period at the end of this sentence and close[d] the book" on the character, but he felt a continuation focused on the younger characters made sense. Matalas said a spin-off series was not in development at the time but he would love to be involved if it ever was.

With the release of Picard third season, Matalas confirmed that he envisioned Star Trek: Legacy as following the crew of the USS Titan-A, which is re-christened the USS Enterprise-G in Picard finale. The crew would be led by Captain Seven of Nine and include Raffi, Jack Crusher, and the La Forge sisters. Matalas highlighted a line of dialogue from Jack in the finale that made him excited about the spin-off's potential: "I can't believe Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship." Jack is visited by John de Lancie's Star Trek villain Q in a post-credits scene at the end of Picard and told that his trial has just begun. Speleers said he had discussed the potential series with Matalas and would love to continue playing Jack for as long as he could, and Stewart said he was open to making guest appearances as Picard alongside Speleers. Matalas said Worf's son Alexander Rozhenko from The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine would appear in the potential spin-off series, and he wanted Todd Stashwick, who portrayed Captain Liam Shaw in the third season of Picard, to return. This was despite his character's death, with Matalas comparing Stashwick's potential return to the resurrected Star Trek character Spock. Frakes expressed interest in Kestra being included in the potential spin-off series alongside the other young characters, and he imagined his own role as being akin to Charlie from the series Charlie's Angels. He explained that Riker could be the admiral that the crew checks in with during the spin-off.

Ryan shared a fan petition calling for Star Trek: Legacy to be made, similar to an earlier petition that led to the development of the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, the spin-off series was considered unlikely to be ordered anytime soon due to Paramount+'s cost-cutting measures and the fact that multiple Star Trek series were already in development. Matalas confirmed in April 2023 that this was the situation, but he had still been discussing his ideas for the spin-off with Kurtzman who stated, "We've heard the fans loud and clear. There's obviously more story to tell. So, we'll see." Goldsman said in June that fan appetite for Legacy was undeniable and he had signed the petition asking Paramount to make the series; the petition was approaching 60,000 signatures at that point, nearly doubling the amount received by the Strange New Worlds petition. By October, fans had started a letter-writing campaign, "Letters 4 Legacy", that called for the spin-off to be made. Picard composer Stephen Barton and production designer Dave Blass both expressed interest in returning for the spin-off series. Blass felt it was "insane" that Paramount had not already signed a deal with Matalas to develop the potential series, fearing that the showrunner would soon be attached to other projects and became unavailable; Matalas was attached to work on multiple projects for Disney the following year. Kurtzman said in April 2024 that he would have green-lighted Legacy by then if he could, but the decision was "beyond [his] paygrade".

Active work
Hopefully lol

Release
Star Trek: Legacy is expected to be released on the streaming service Paramount+.