At least one Star Trek: Picard actor wants a spinoff

Talks of a Star Trek: Picard spinoff are taking over Trek fandom.

Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season is airing as this is being typed. The show has a few more weeks until it closes its doors for good and while the show has earned a bit of an upgrade over its past two seasons, the fandom is still largely split on how they feel about the third and final season of the series.

That hasn’t stopped some fans from pushing for more content by Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. There’s currently a petition on Change.org that is demanding more from Matalas and Star Trek. The petition was started by The Popcast and it currently has 10,500 signatures out of 15,000.

The petition has its supporters, like Picard actor Todd Stashwick, who plays Captain Shawn on the series. In the tweet below, you can clearly see that he wants to see more Picard-spinoff shows with Matalas at the helm of them.

The petition really seems overly dramatic, considering it’s on the same petition site that is demanding social changes. The petition contains some very over-dramatic verbiage, with the petitioner saying, “As passionate Trekkies, we crave a show that pays tribute to the Legacy era and carries on the story from the current timeline.”

I guess Picard, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy aren’t enough for them. The petitioners then seem to overestimate their impact on billion-dollar franchises, by saying, “The fate of our beloved Star Trek franchise is up to us.”

Don’t hold your breath for many more Star Trek shows

I applaud the petition for showing the world what they want from Star Trek. Kudos. It’s likely not going to happen. Shows like Picard and Discovery were canceled to save money, as Paramount+ is not doing well. They’re currently in debt some $575 million for the service alone and are years away from profitability. Not only that, but they’re raising prices, slashing show budgets, and mass canceling huge swaths of shows.

Star Trek is too expensive of a franchise to have four or five shows in active production all at once. They’ll likely pair everything down to two or three shows, and that’s assuming Lower Decks doesn’t get canceled next.

Right now, there are only two shows that you can bank on coming back for more seasons and that’s simply due to the success of Strange New Worlds and the merchandise possibilities of Prodigy.

Every other Star Trek concept or idea is probably not long for this world.