ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish confirms two new Star Trek series and a movie
ViacomCBS x Star Trek
ViacomCBS held their fourth-quarter earnings call yesterday morning. Overall, the call was a mixed bag with mixed reception, but there was some exciting news for Star Trek fans as CEO Bob Bakish confirmed some recent reports about the franchise.
ViacomCBS live-tweeted the call. In it, Bakish acknowledged Star Trek’s (and in particular, Star Trek: Picard’s) role in boosting the performance of CBS All Access. He said, “On the heels of #StarTrekPicard on @CBSAllAccess – which broke our records for total streams & subscriber sign-ups – we’re now taking the #StarTrek franchise & extending it across the house.”
"On the heels of #StarTrekPicard on @CBSAllAccess – which broke our records for total streams & subscriber sign-ups – we’re now taking the #StarTrek franchise & extending it across the house." - BB $VIAC pic.twitter.com/7Og2MnBE2D
— ViacomCBS (@ViacomCBS) February 20, 2020
Bakish went on to elaborate about “extending [Star Trek] across the house”: “Building on Discovery & Picard, we now have 2 addtl series in production at @CBSAllAccess & @Nickelodeon, & 2 more series in development; plus, a series of Picard novels being rolled out at @simonschuster, & a highly anticipated new #StarTrek film at @ParamountPics.”
"Building on Discovery & Picard, we now have 2 addtl series in production at @CBSAllAccess & @Nickelodeon, & 2 more series in development; plus, a series of Picard novels being rolled out at @simonschuster, & a highly anticipated new #StarTrek film at @ParamountPics." - BB $VIAC
— ViacomCBS (@ViacomCBS) February 20, 2020
Now, just to be clear, there’s no new information here, except possibly the series of Picard novels, but I would say most of us just assumed that would be the case. That would follow in the footsteps of Star Trek: Discovery’s tie-in novels, and considering that literary liaison Kirsten Beyer is working on the Picard team, it would have been more surprising for Bakish to assert that there would be no Picard novels coming up.
As for the series, Star Trek head honcho Alex Kurtzman actually let slip back in January that there were two yet-unnamed series in production. As of now, the total stands at 8 current series: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Section 31, Prodigy (the reported name of the Hageman Brothers’ Nickelodeon series), Short Treks (assuming they return), and the two unnamed series. While Bakish’s statement in the call might not be new news, hearing it from the horse’s mouth, as it were, certainly is new.
Finally, what about that “highly-anticipated” new Star Trek film for Paramount? That’ll be the Noah Hawley film, which may or may not be a Kelvin Timeline Star Trek 4. All we really know there is that there’s no mandate to connect it to any of the television series, and that Alex Kurtzman has mentioned in passing that he’s been in contact with Hawley.
Regardless of the details here, it’s significant that Bakish specifically called out the Star Trek franchise in detail in the call. It speaks to his perceived place for Trek in the growing ViacomCBS ecosystem - which appears to be out in front.
Of course, you can view all the latest Star Trek series now on CBS All Access (I know Bob Bakish would like you to), and for all the latest updates on the franchise, please consider signing up for the Daily Star Trek Newsletter, at dailystartreknews.com/contact.
