‘Star Trek: Picard’ Showrunner Terry Matalas Jumps To Marvel As Showrunner For New Vision Series

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| MAY 22, 2024 | BY: ANTHONY PASCALE 105 COMMENTS SO FAR
The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard was a huge hit with fans and garnered showrunner Terry Matalas accolades and awards. Since the show wrapped up last year fans have been hoping Paramount+ would move forward on a follow-up series which Matalas has dubbed “Star Trek: Legacy,” however it now looks like the executive producer is going to be too busy, at least in the short term.
Matalas has Vision
According to an exclusive report in Variety, Terry Matalas has been tapped by Marvel Studios as executive producer and showrunner for a new untitled Disney+ series focused on the character Vision, the synthezoid played by Paul Bettany. The series follows the events of 2021’s WandaVision after Bettany returned to the role following 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War film. The new streaming series is targeting a 2026 release. It is unclear if Marvel is looking for a limited or ongoing series.
It appears that Matalas got the attention of Marvel Studio chief Kevin Feige with season 3 of Picard. Feige is an avowed Trek fan and he appeared with Matalas in a February episode of Inglorious Treksperts to talk about Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. During that podcast, Feige offered high praise for Matalas and his work on Picard. Matalas and Picard were also a big winner at the Saturn Awards in February, where Kevin Feige presented the cast of The Next Generation with a lifetime achievement award.

Terry Matalas accepting the award for Best Drama Series (Saturn Awards)
What of Legacy?
In the year since the season finale of Picard, Matalas has made it clear in several interviews and convention appearances that he hoped to return to the franchise and carry on the story in the 25th century. His “Star Trek: Legacy” concept would be set on board the USS Enterprise-G under the command of Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), as established in the Picard series finale. Matalas had envisioned that many members of the season 3 cast including Ed Speleers as Jack Crusher, as well as guest stars from Star Trek: The Next Generation, would return in regular or recurring roles. There would also be plenty of opportunities to bring in more legacy characters from other Trek series, especially Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Many actors, including Jeri Ryan and Jonathan Frakes, have spoken openly about their support of Matalas’ vision.
This idea has the support of many fans, including a petition with close to 65,000 signatures. This has the attention of those who are in charge of Star Trek, but recently Alex Kurtzman said he would love to greenlight Legacy but the decision was out of his hands. CBS CEO George Cheeks was also recently asked about Legacy, but didn’t offer any real assurances beyond talk of how Star Trek is “one of the most important franchises for Paramount Global, and Paramount+ specifically.”

Terry Matalas with the Next Generation cast on the Enterprise-D set for Picard (Photo: Dennys Ilic)
Of course, Paramount Global has been scaling back spending on streaming in the last few years, and we have already seen how this has impacted Star Trek with Discovery and Lower Decks ending with their fifth seasons this year and Prodigy removed from the platform last year, later revived on Netflix. Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fourth season, becoming the new Star Trek anchor show for Paramount+. Paramount+ is also moving forward on the YA-focused Starfleet Academy series, with Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter just announced as the series lead.
Earlier this year Paramount+ wrapped production on the franchise’s first streaming movie event, Star Trek: Section 31, starring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh. Paramount is reportedly looking for potential follow-up streaming Trek movies and it has been suggested that this format could be a start for Matalas’ “Legacy” concept. At the Saturn Awards in February, Matalas told TrekMovie he was open to that idea, but emphasized he was holding out hope for a series, saying:

Look, anything is possible. We certainly wouldn’t be “Oh no, we aren’t going to do a movie.” For me, I would just need this crew, I would need this cast, and as long as that was a possibility, we would figure something out, yeah. A series is obviously ideal because there’s so many stories to tell. And the 25th century in general in Star Trek is such a rich thing.

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There is no indication that Matalas has an exclusive deal with Disney/Marvel so working on the new Vision series does not preclude him from also working on Star Trek, however, the new show will certainly be the focus of his time over the next couple of years. Perhaps during that time things will settle down with Paramount Global and they will start looking to move forward with another live-action Star Trek project and Legacy could be at the top of the list of potential next steps.