Picard 'Star Trek' Spin-Off Series Casts Santiago Cabrera And Michelle Hurd

Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard has secured himself two new shipmates. Big Little Lies' Santiago Cabrera and Blindspot's Michelle Hurd are joining the Picard series cast, which will feature the Star Trek: Next Generation actor reprising his iconic role as the captain of the USS Enterprise.The Hollywood Reporter reports that Cabrera (Big Little Lies, Salvation) and Hurd (Blindspot) are joining joined Stewart as regulars in the untitled CBS All Access spin-off series centered around USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Their roles are under wraps for now.

There is no word on whether other characters from Star Trek: Next Generation, which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1994, will be returning for the series. Stewart will be reprising his role that he originated in Next Generation for the first time since the 2002 feature film Star Trek: Nemesis. The spin-off series will reportedly pick up twenty years after the events of that film.

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman told THR that the new series will follow Picard after his life has been "radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire." At the Television Critics Association Press Tour last month, Kurtzman added, "The question becomes: What has happened to him in that period of time? Have there been occurrences that force him to reckon with choices that he's made in his life? How do you hold on to to being the person that everybody loved, when the circumstances around you may have changed so radically? Those are the big questions that we're asking."

The pilot and second episode of the series, which is still untitled, will be directed by Hanelle Culpepper, director of episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, along with Supergirl and Gotham.

The Picard series will debut on CBS All Access at the end of 2019.