Star Trek: Picard showrunner Michael Chabon made clear that fan feedback over the last few months has not effected where the story will go for a second season of the show.
In a wide-ranging interview with Variety, where Chabon stated he wanted to “piss off or provoke people,” he also discussed a possible second season of the show.
Variety’s Adam B. Vary asked Chabon about fan feedback to Picard and if it would inform how Star Trek writers would look at Season 2.
Chabon made it clear, that those reactions would not affect Season 2. In short he said, “No, not at all”.
He went on to highlight what he says the show is about and how the second season will continue that focus.
“We’re true to what my dear friend and collaborator and partner Akiva Goldsman calls the object. The object is “Star Trek: Picard.” It is a show with a nearly 80-year-old actor playing a 94-year-old man who is if not in the final stages of his career, in the latter stages of his career, who has a period of great dismay and disillusionment in his immediate rear view, who has allowed himself to let ties that were formerly very important to him slip or fade away, and who has now re-engaged with the greatly changed world in which he finds himself. That is the story we’re telling.”
He also made very clear, that the story being told is reflective of what Stewart wants and what Chabon believes makes for interesting storytelling, saying, “We’re telling that story because it feels both interesting and true, but also because it reflects the nature of our star and both his desires and his capabilities.”
He then details the show would never be The Next Generation clone or even a true sequel to The Next Generation.
“It was not ever going to be “The Next Generation Part Two” in any way. It was never going to have a regular cast made up of LeVar Burton and Jonathan Frakes and Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn. It was never going to be set on the bridge of a starship in Starfleet. It was never going to be episodic in format. It was never going to be any of the things that “TNG” was.”
Chabon added, “Not only couldn’t it be those things if it tried, but it wasn’t going to try. Because that’s not what we have to do.”
Chabon was then asked what Season 2 would look like. Chabon, who will not be the showrunner for Season 2, responded, “It’s definitely going to go in directions that we didn’t see in Season 1.”
He continued, “I think we’ve been emboldened in many ways by the popularity of the show.”
Then detailing that the first season is pretty much a building block for everything after it, Chabon claims, “I’ve only done this once, but I would imagine it’s probably true for a lot of television shows especially in this era: Season 1 was in many respects about learning how to make “Star Trek: Picard.” Both in a production sense, but also in terms of storytelling and who our cast is, how these characters end up forming surprising links and attachments to each other.”
Finally, Chabon notes they will only be doing more of what fans got in the first season. He makes the point by making a comparison to The Next Generation,”It’s in a way that I think was probably true back with “TNG” and what I was talking about — everyone agrees, once Riker grew the beard, the show got better. It was because they learned what they had.”
Chabon concluded, “Going forward, we’re only going to be doing more of what we did, with greater confidence and with a greater sense of what this show feels like when it’s firing on all engines.”
What do you think of Chabon’s comments about a second season of Star Trek: Picard? Do you plan on watching a second season if they do indeed make one? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below as well as Twitter!