Terry Matalas, showrunner of Star Trek: Picard Seasons 2 and 3, didn't lack direction when it came to building the final season of the streaming series. Having begun his career working on both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, Matalas is the perfect pick for creating the super-sized reunion including the almost full cast of characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) is notably missing from the returning line-up, he recently made an appearance on the second season of Picard. Matalas recently appeared on the Inglorious Treksperts podcast explaining the process of deciding where the different characters ended up while also teasing their stories for the next season, which has already been filmed.

Firstly, Matalas dove into the anthology aspect and how each season of Picard is wildly different. He talks about the different creators behind Picard and what about Trek they latch onto, giving listeners a hint to the thematic elements of Season 3. Matalas explained, "these are all valid Star Treks… For me, it’s a story of friendship... The crew and their bonds with these insurmountable odds and coming together. But it is different for everybody."

However, Season 3 is still ultimately a story about Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) at its core: "All of them though with the focus of Picard now dealing with some emotional aspect of his life. That’s important." Still, the showrunner didn't feel like Star Trek: Nemesis gave proper closure to The Next Generation's characters, making that a core part of his pitch for Season 3 to Stewart and the rest of the cast.

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Image via Paramount

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In fact, Matalas also described how the actors were crucial to deciding where these characters are in a 25th-century setting:

"I didn’t want to make anything that they didn’t want to make… They all have big things to do. We all meet them and find out where they are now. And some of those answers as to what they’re doing now are unexpected. So I wanted them to be happy and have input… They’ve lived with these characters. They go to the conventions. They know the stories that matter to these people.

For Gates [McFadden], I wanted to make sure that Crusher really had a very strong story. That was a fascinating—it’s a fascinating character who let her son go off into the universe, who had once had a romantic relationship with Captain Picard. And where are they now? And sitting with LeVar and saying: 'Here’s what I think’s going to happen to Geordi.' And LeVar [Burton] made me cry. There was a moment when I pitched it and he was so emotional and I got emotional. I was like, 'This is one of those cool moments.'"

Matalas also spoke to Jonathan Frakes, who in addition to playing William Riker, also is a regular director on the current Star Trek series. Directing Episodes 5 and 6 of Picard Season 2 gave Matalas a chance to run ideas by Frakes earlier. Matalas recalled telling Frakes about an idea for Season 3 and his reply: “You want me to act?” The showrunner followed the story up, reiterating, "They had to be happy or else I wouldn’t have felt good... And all of them brought really great ideas to it."

With such a collaborative creative team and cast, Season 3 of Picard could be shaping up to be the best season yet. Listen to the podcast at Inglorious Treksperts and watch Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+. Season 3 does not yet have a release date, but stay tuned at Collider for updates!