Alex Kurtzman, who recently became the showrunner on Star Trek: Discovery after the old showrunners were ousted for reportedly being abusive towards the writing staff, has his eye on much bigger plans for the long-running franchise. According to a press release, Kurtzman’s five-year deal with CBS Television Studios includes “expanding the Star Trek franchise for television.” Sources tell EW that there are three different Trek concepts in development.

Perhaps the most intriguing possibility is a new Star Trek series starring Patrick Stewart, who would reprise his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. According to THR:

The new deal comes as rumblings about another Star Trek series, featuring Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Star Trek: The Next Generation's Capt. Pickard, have been heating up. Sources say Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman, who left Discovery after season one, are attached to the Stewart-led reboot. CBS TV Studios declined to confirm the Stewart project as sources say a deal is far from completed and may not happen despite the fact that the actor recently teased his potential return to the franchise.

As for the other series, Variety reports that one would be "A series set at Starfleet Academy from creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz," who recently served as showrunners on Hulu's awful adaptation of Runaways. There would also be a limited series based on Wrath of Khan because, as we saw from Star Trek Into Darkness (which Kurtzman co-wrote), he clearly understands Khan except for not at all and only as a name he can franchise-hump into the ground. There's also a limited series with details being kept under wraps (this could be the Picard show) and an animated series.

On the one hand, I would love to see Stewart reprise his role as Picard, especially since his swan song for the character was the wretched Star Trek: Nemesis and the actor and character deserve better. That being said, the problem, as it has always been, is that this franchise is in the hands of guys like Kurtzman and Goldsman, who are bad writers that don’t understand Star Trek. People I’ve talked to who like Discovery even admit that it’s a good show, but you can’t really appreciate it as Star Trek since it doesn’t really fit into canon or even have the vibe you want from a Star Trek series. But apparently for CBS, that’s translating into “More, please.” I'm not sure if even more Picard can mitigate that.

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