On Sunday the cast and creatives from Star Trek: Discovery held a panel at PaleyFest Los Angeles (see our recap). While there, TrekMovie had a chance to talk to Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman about where the show was headed and about the status of other Trek shows in development.

Let’s talk about canon, if Patrick Stewart as Picard on his new show pulls up his computer, will all the events we have seen on Star Trek: [Discovery]…

[cuts off] You are asking me a very sneaky question right now, and I’m not going to answer it. I know what you are doing, and tell you what, I will answer it for you at the end of the season. Is that fair? I don’t want to ruin it.

What would you say is the status of the Section 31 show?

[Showrunners] Erika [Lippoldt] and Boey [Yeon Kim] are just breaking story now. And they are double-dutying between season three of Discovery and Section 31. So, we are just breaking story and the plan is to start shooting it as soon as we wrap season three.

So, you have a series order?

We don’t have a series order yet. We are just breaking story now. As soon as there is a script—usually they order a series off of a script, but everything is in place now.

So if that were to drop, would you expect in 2021 or 2022?

Yeah, what we have found on these shows is they take an enormously long time to prep and an enormously long time to post. And what we don’t want to do is rush anything. It’s not worth it. Fans will be really disappointed if they feel we are rushing them through the experience that we are making. So, I would say 2021 or ’22. Maybe ’21.

So, for 2020 to 2021 would you expect season three of Discovery, and…

You’ll have our Picard show—as yet untitled. We have Discovery season three, and hopefully Section 31.

What about the animated show [Lower Decks]?

Yes, you’ll have those too.

In ’21?

So, the animation takes about a year to turn around, it’s a very long process. Both of those shows are moving forward now, and have series orders and we will drop them when they are ready, but I would say 2021 or ’22.

But the Picard show will start in December?

Yes, we will be airing this year.

Can you clarify if the Picard show will be on Netflix or airing on other outlets overseas?

News on that will be coming very soon, which I cannot break.

Can you confirm the kid’s animated series for Nickelodeon?

Yes on the kid’s animated show on Nickelodeon—very different from Lower Decks…that is happening.

The deal has been cut?

We are very close. We are very, very close—very excited about it. The Hagemans are amazing. And they have a really wonderful take.

Any comments on the Starfleet Academy or Khan series that have been previously reported in development?

Can’t tell ya.

Watch the video interview with Alex Kurtzman

More from PaleyFest LA

In case you missed it, we also covered Alex Kurtzman’s comments about the upcoming Picard show from PaleyFest. You can also check out our red carpet interview with Ethan Peck. And we have more red carpet interviews coming, so stay tuned.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.