Star Trek: Picard won’t crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman won’t have Picard & Strange New Worlds crossover. Star Trek has five shows running concurrently with one another, albeit at different points of the year. As of Feb. 26, 2022, Star Trek has five shows actively in production or airing. Three live-action; Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and two animated, Lower Decks and Prodigy.

While back in the 90s it was common for shows in Star Trek to intermingle with one another from time to time, that hasn’t been the case so far. These shows are all happening at different times, with the three closest in the timeline being Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Picard.

As all three shows are vastly different than one another in both tone and audience, any crossover there is unlikely. So when Inverse got to talk to Akiva Goldsman, the co-showrunner of Picard and Strange New Worlds made it clear that the shows won’t be crossing over with one another.

"You know, I’ll tell you why I’m not. It’s because I think with Strange New Worlds, the promise is that it will be episodic, and [it] speaks to things that are complete. If we reach backward in Strange New Worlds, we’re doing it on something that is historically established canon. And we’ll do that in a way that the [reference] is a hard enough fact. It would be a reference that’s easy to explain to somebody who doesn’t know and delightful to somebody who does. When Picard is done, then it will be a hard fact. Because remember, Picard has also moved now into Strange New Worlds’ past."

While he isn’t suggesting the two may pop up in one another’s orbit in any capacity, be it in person or reference form, he’s not ruling it out forever.

"Let Picard be done, and then I could see it start to emerge in Strange New Worlds. I think Picard has already emerged in Discovery. So, you know, cross-pollination is always possible in the future."

Akiva Goldsman is smart to not do much in the way of cross-overs

Star Trek fans want more Star Trek, but they don’t want the Trek they knew disrespected or ignored for the shiny new things. They want there to be connections and a show that feels familiar and adds to the conversation without being boring or repetitive.

Goldsman is wise to respect the fact that Strange New Worlds is breathing on the back of established cannon, and if he can use that show to further enrich The Original Series, then that’s awesome but trying to force Picard and Strange New Worlds to get along would be too much.

Especially with Picard playing heavily into the time travel angle, it’s almost impossible to know for sure what will end up being recognized as canon and what won’t be by the time the second season closes.

After all, if you look at the Voyager two-parter “Year of Hell”, the episode happened, and while it’s canon in the sense of the Star Trek mythos, none of it actually happened by the end of the episode. The timeline was reset. So will Picard face the same issues? Only time will tell and until then, it’s smart not to cross-pollinate the two shows.