There’s no doubting that Jonathan Frakes knows Star Trek.
The actor/director has been a part of the Star Trek franchise since Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987. Either behind the camera or in front of it, Frakes has proven he knows Trek and what the fans want. So no one can be surprised to learn that Frakes is behind Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas’ idea for a spin-off series entitled “Star Trek: Legacy.”
In a conversation with Variety, Frakes pointed out the fan demand for the show, saying that would be hard to ignore. He added that the final season of Picard was among the best seasons of any Star Trek, and the viewers helped push it into the top 10 on the streaming charts. So a Legacy show that continues the stories of Captain Seven of Nine, Lt. Commander Raffi Musiker, and Ensign Jack Crusher, along with the rest of the crew has to make sense to the executives at Paramount.
Jonathan Frakes believes Paramount will find the assets to create Star Trek: Legacy.
Calling himself an “eternal optimist,” Frakes said he believes in a perfect world, Paramount will “find the assets and the energy and hire Terry [Matalas] to put together this ‘Legacy’ show and that will, in fact, come to fruition.”
It’s clear that Frakes believes in the power of the fans and their voices, and he has a solid reason to. At the time of this writing, the petition for Legacy series had been signed by 61,347 people, with 135 of those signatures coming in this week. So fans have not forgotten about the spin-off series and are clearly still interested in bringing it to light.
It’s not something we’ll see happen this year and possibly not even next year, but if Paramount does allow the demand for Legacy to be its guiding light, then hopefully, executives will move forward with the series by 2025.