Star Trek: Picard’s ruthless season 2 finale means there’s one spinoff fans won’t be seeing on Paramount+ anytime soon. The Star Trek franchise has certainly endured lean periods during its time, but the early 2020s isn’t one of them. Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are all currently active, while spinoffs based around Section 31 and Starfleet Academy are also in Paramount’s pipeline. On the big screen, Chris Pine’s Enterprise crew are even reuniting for Star Trek 4. Diversifying major franchises is an increasingly common strategy as the streaming wars rage on – the more content, the better.
As Paramount continues its ongoing mission to seek out strange new spinoffs, Star Trek: Picard looked to be laying foundations for yet another TV series. Season 2’s premiere revealed the Stargazer – the vessel destroyed during Jean-Luc Picard’s first command – has finally been rebuilt, and none other than Santiago Cabrera’s Cristóbal Rios is assigned as her captain. A former first officer who became disillusioned and quit Starfleet to try his hand at piracy, Rios evidently rejoined between Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 & 2. Resurfacing as a charming, roguish captain, a spinoff based around Rios’ future Stargazer adventures seemed entirely plausible.
