Jonathan Frakes Is On Board to Direct A New Sci-Fi Series

Image: Paramount+

Though most people know Johnathan Frakes for his role as William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, he has also spent a large part of his career directing. He has directed many Star Trek shows, most recently some episodes from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds including fan favorite “Those Old Scientists.” He also just recently confirmed that he will be directing Strange New Worlds season 3. 

Outside of the Star Trek universe, Frakes just signed on to direct all of Deathlands, a 10 part series inspired by the 1986 book by James Axler and Jack Adrian. Deathlands takes place in an alternate, post-apocalyptic future in which there was a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The subsequent nuclear fallout caused people to mutate and become crazed. The show follows Ryan Cawdor and other survivors who travel to the deathlands using a piece of teleportation technology they have recently discovered. 

Other people working on Deathlands include Mark A. Altman, who will serve as showrunner. In addition, Altman, Jeff Garzik, and Thomas P. Vitale will serve as executive producers. The show comes from NextCypher production studios, a new but promising studio looking to make a name for themselves in the science fiction world. 

Filming takes place during spring in Bulgaria which will presumably fill up much of Frakes’s time, pulling him away from future Star Trek projects. That being said, it’s unlikely that this marks Frakes’s departure from Star Trek forever. He consistently expressed enthusiasm for future Trek projects and has been quite successful in his Star Trek directing career.