The 2019 San Diego Comic Con is looking to be a fantastic place for Star Trek fans. This year’s convention will feature its first back-to-back Star Trek panels with the cast and producers of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek Lower Decks will all participating, though it is difficult to imagine fans asking questions of anyone other than Sir Patrick Stewart.
Specifically, the panel for Star Trek: Discovery will feature Sonequa Martin-Green, Alex Kurtzman, Michele Paradise and Heather Kadin. The panel for Star Trek: Lower Decks will consist of executive producer Mike McMahan with a number of unannounced special guests.
The big draw on everyone’s mine will be the panel for Star Trek: Picard, featuring Sir Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, Harry Treadaway, executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, and Heather Kadin will all be speaking on topics relating to the highly-anticipated new show.
As a lead up to the airing of Star Trek: Picard, there will be an exhibition in place focused on the history of Captain Jean Luc Picard. Fans can likely expect not only the most well-known and iconic set pieces or stories from the show that made the character so important, but also tie-ins to anything relating to the Romulan people.
During the entirety of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Federation had a tenuous relationship with the Romulan Empire, and it appears that the story for the upcoming Picard series based upon the premise that Romulus was destroyed in the same manner as we have seen in the recent reboot Star Trek from 2009, and Captain Jean Luc Picard finds himself deeply affected by the destruction of the planet. By this point, set twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard is a retired admiral, and is no longer in command of the flagship Enterprise.
What makes fans so excited for the release of this new series is that Stewart himself had some choice words regarding the process through which the show was conceived. In his eyes, the story of Captain Picard had naturally run its course years ago, and yet, in meeting with both Kurtzman and Chabon, he fell in love with their vision, and stated that he would be involved only if this project felt fundamentally different from previous stories in the series, wanting “both what people remember but also not what they're expecting at all, otherwise why do it?”
This may result in fans of the classic formula feeling disconnected from what lies ahead, but there is no reason to doubt its intention to subvert our expectations and surprise us.
The Star Trek Universe panels will take place on Saturday, July 20 from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM at Hall H. The entire event for the Comic-Con International in San Diego runs from Thursday, July 18 through Sunday, July 21.