Picard Showrunner Talks His Idea for a Star Trek: Voyager and DS9 Sequel Series

Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas has big plans for a follow-up series, checking in with more characters from Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Jean-Luc, Riker, and Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Photo: Nicole Wilder/Paramount+

This Star Trek: Picard article contains spoilers.

With a few episodes yet to go, the third season of Star Trek: Picard has already made good on its promise of a Next Generation sequel, but it’s done even more than we expected, nodding to all of ’90s Star Trek. Not only has the primary conflict been a follow-up to the Dominion War shown in Deep Space Nine, but main cast character Seven of Nine has been given time to wax fondly about her time on the USS Voyager. And even though her reunion with Tuvok turned out to be a ruse by the Changelings, at least we didn’t have to see anyone get their eyeballs ripped out!

So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Picard‘s showrunner wants to keep the good times going past the third and final season of Picard. Showrunner Terry Matalas has been open on social media about wanting to do a new spinoff series called Star Trek: Legacy, which would follow the further adventures of Captain Liam Shaw on the USS Titan as well as some of the ’90s characters.

Matalas gave attendees at Galaxy Con (via TrekMovie) some details about what Legacy could be, details that should thrill fans of ’90s Trek. If he has his way, Matalas would dig even further into the worlds of Deep Space Nine and Voyager in this potential sequel series. “Boy, wouldn’t you want to check in with the Klingon Empire?” Matalas asked attendees. “Wouldn’t you want to check in with Deep Space Nine and The Doctor [from Voyager]”?

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To be sure, the answer to these questions was a resounding “yes,” which Matalas certainly knew. Although both series came to definitive and largely well-received ends, the finales of Deep Space Nine and Voyager also signaled the end of the line of ’90s Trek. After the last episode of Voyager in 2001 and the movie Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, the franchise devoted itself entirely to prequels and reboots, with Star Trek: Enterprise set during the Federation’s founding in the 22nd century, the J.J. Abrams movies rebooting the TOS era, and Discovery set 10 years before TOS.

Lower Decks and the first two seasons of Picard have dropped a few hints about the universe after the ’90s series, but Matalas sees much more left to explore. In particular, he wants to follow the surprise return of Ro Laren in Picard by catching up with her fellow Bajoran freedom fighter Kira Nerys, beyond her cameo in a recent episode of Lower Decks. “She’s so good,” said Matalas of Kira’s actor Nana Visitor, who has been a vocal fan of Picard. “I mean, gosh you want to see that. You want to see Nana so bad and what’s going on with her and everyone. That would be phenomenal.”

Of course, it’s important to note that all of this is just Matalas thinking out loud. Paramount has renewed Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, and announced that Discovery‘s fifth season will be its last, but it has said nothing about continuing the story of ’90s characters beyond Picard. “I don’t work for Star Trek right now,” Matalas admitted. “We are not developing anything.” But he did urge fans to “be loud” if they wanted more, pointing to the letter campaigns that got the original series renewed for a third season and eventually back for The Motion Picture in the ’60s and ’70s. “[Fans] get to decide. So however you best make noise is how to do it.”

Star Trek: Picard season 3 streams on Thursdays on Paramount+.