Lea Thompson on directing Star Trek: Picard and wanting to "prove" to Marvel that she can direct big films

Lea Thompson directs an episode of Star Trek: Picard

MAY 22, 2022 - When we last checked in on actor and director Lea Thompson, she was directing two episodes of Star Trek: Picard season two, “Assimilation” and “Watcher,” as well as appearing in “Fly Me to the Moon.” Now Thompson is telling The Big Issue about other plans based on her experience on Picard.

Working on Star Trek was a dream come true for Thompson. She says, “The little flaming liberal in me loved Star Trek when I was a little girl. I love that science fiction can use the future to talk about the present. And so I felt completely lucky to be able to talk about racism in America in Star Trek: Picard.”

But addressing social issues is not all that Star Trek is known for. There are also the special effects, and the latest series are making the most of the current state of the art. Thompson wanted the experience of working in that environment as well.

She went to Marvel with a pitch and says, “That’s part of the reason I’ve been doing these big, special effects jobs. I want to prove to them that I could direct one of those movies.”

While she won’t reveal what her pitch was, Thompson appeared, way back in 1986, in Howard the Duck, and does say, “I’d love to do, not a reboot of Howard the Duck, but a new version now that they have the technology that would make Howard the Duck much better.”

Before you start clamoring for more Howard the Duck, though, feel free to check out the full interview with Lea Thompson in The Big Issue and head over to Paramount+ to see her work on Star Trek: Picard, streaming now.