Star Trek: Picard renewed for season 2; 12 Monkeys and MacGyver producer Matalas named showrunner

Images courtesy IMDb

Star Trek: Picard has been - officially - renewed for a second season.

Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President of Original Content for CBS All Access, dropped the news at a Television Critics’ Association event last week. The announcement confirms what the entertainment press already knew, after the California Film Commission conditionally awarded Picard a tax credit for season 2’s production last month. Deadline quoted McNamara as saying, “The energy and excitement around the premiere of Star Trek: Picard has reached a magnitude greater than all of us at CBS All Access could have hoped for. [...] We’re thrilled to announce plans for a second season before the series’ debut.”

The TCA announcement was followed up shortly by a press release from ViacomCBS, who added that 12 Monkeys and MacGyver producer Terry Matalas has been named showrunner for season 2. Matalas takes over the reins from Michael Chabon, who himself has moved on to producing the adaptation of his Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Interesting to note here that Matalas actually got his Hollywood start on Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise; his earliest credits are as a production assistant on those shows, as far back as 2001.

Season one of Star Trek: Picard premieres this Thursday, January 23rd, on CBS All Access in the United States, and on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Elsewhere, Amazon Prime Video will show the new series starting on Friday, January 24th.