Star Trek: Picard Showrunner Terry Matalas Almost Found Himself Showrunning the Khan Series
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! Image: Paramount.
MARCH 1, 2023 - Star Trek: Picard season 3 is now fully underway. We’ve had the reintroduction to half of the main cast and we did a reveal that at least I was not expecting. Jack Crusher!
As the showrunner, Terry Matalas has gone all out for the 3rd and (final?) season of PIC by bringing the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation back together after decades have passed for the characters and us the viewers.
Yet, in another of his many interviews, Matalas reveals that before he returned to the franchise to co-run Star Trek: Picard Season 2, he had a very different Star Trek TV series in his sights: A backstory, prequel TV series about none other than Kahn, or as Kirk would say “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!” According to Matalas,
When I finished editing our 12 Monkeys [TV series] finale, they had just started shooting Discovery. I'd heard through the grapevine they wanted to continue to develop more Star Trek. I reached out to my agent and said, 'Please, I'd love to sit down and talk Star Trek with Secret Hideout.
I met over there and, at the time, they were developing a Khan series. Akiva (Goldsman) and I talked, and, if it went, I was going to go run that. But, instead, Picard happened... and then I got a call from Akiva saying, 'Hey, I'm going to need some help doing Picard Season two... And then for season three, I want to hand it over to you.' I was extremely lucky to be working with that incredible group of writers...
It would have been interesting to see his vision of a younger Kahn play out onscreen. Would it have taken place in the 1990s? Would it be aboard the Botany Bay? And with Montalban no longer with us and Cumberbatch busy in the MCU, who would be cast in the titular role?
Though none of those questions were ever answered….onscreen, you can tune into the Star Trek: Khan -- Ceti Alpha V podcast, under franchise movie writer/director Nick Meyers. This series will examine what happened on Ceti Alpha V after Kirk marooned Khan and co. on that world after Star Trek TOS, until their revenge meeting with Kirk and crew.
According to the official blurb about the podcast:
Nick made the definitive Trek movie when he made Wrath, and we've all been standing in its shadow since," said Star Trek Universe producer Alex Kurtzman. "Forty years have offered him a lot of perspective on these extraordinary characters and the way they've impacted generations of fans. Now he's come up with something as surprising, gripping, and emotional as the original, and it's a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to.
So, on the one hand, we’ll not see a series anytime soon, but we will be treated to the master himself with the ear candy that will be the podcast.
For this and more info, warp over to ComicBook.com.
Thaddeus Tuffentsamer is an internationally selling author. His books have been sold in the US, the UK, Sweden, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and France. He has a series of young reader novels, a satirical self-help book, (which, according to reviews, actually has some pretty solid counsel), and has joined the list of professional Sherlock Holmes authors.
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