This morning CBS announced they have extended Star Trek: Discovery executive producer Alex Kurtzman’s agreement with an exclusive deal through to 2023. The new deal with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout production company will include Kurtzman, who just took over as Discovery’s showrunner, supervising what CBS is calling an expansion of the Star Trek franchise for television.

Kurtzman’s 5-year mission

According to CBS, Kurtzman will be developing new Star Trek series, mini-series and other content opportunities, including animation. In addition to Star Trek, Kurtzman and an expanded Secret Hideout under president Heather Kadin will develop new, original series across the full spectrum of broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

CBS Television Studios President David Stapf said in a statement:

“There is a very short list of writer-producer-directors that every film and television studio wants to be associated with, and Alex and his Secret Hideout team are always at the top. His talent, taste and ability to shepherd a successful project is unparalleled. Alex has done remarkable work for our Studio, dating back seven years to the launch of HAWAII FIVE-0, and we are thrilled that he, Heather and their team will be partnering with us for a long time to come.”

Kurtzman is also quoted in the same statement, with:

“Heather, Aaron and I are thrilled to continue Secret Hideout’s amazing partnership with CBS Television Studios. Since our first collaboration with HAWAII FIVE-0 almost a decade ago, Les, David and the full team at CBS Studios have been our foremost collaborators and champions, treating each project with integrity, supporting the creative visions and working breathlessly to make each episode of every show the best it can be. CBS has also allowed us the great pleasure of reintroducing the world of Star Trek audiences new and old, and we are very excited to keep working alongside them to expand that world.”

Multiple shows in development

The official announcement did not go into detail on what possible additional Star Trek content is in the works, but Variety reports some of the potential projects include the following:

A series set at Starfleet Academy from creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz. The duo most recently developed the CW’s reboot of Dynasty and previously created shows like Gossip Girl and Hulu and Marvel’s Runaways.

A limited series whose plot details are being kept under wraps.

A limited series based around the “Wrath of Khan” story. Khan’s full name is Khan Noonien Singh. He was famously portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in both the original series episode “Space Seed” and again in the film Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. Benedict Cumberbatch then played the character in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness.

An animated series whose plot details are being kept under wraps.

The third item on that list related to Khan is likely the limited series that Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer first spoke to TrekMovie about last summer, and recently said was on hold.

Patrick Stewart returning as Picard?

An even more intriguing hint on what is in development comes from The Hollywood Reporter, with the unconfirmed report that there are “rumblings” which are “heating up” about a new Star Trek series “featuring Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Captain Jean-Luc Picard.” According to THR, Akiva Goldsman, who was reported to have exited Star Trek: Discovery at the end of season one, is attached to the Sir Patrick Stewart project.

One bit of potential confirmation of this could be the intriguing hint Sir Patrick dropped last month when he said he may have good reason to start watching Star Trek: Discovery. At the time speculation was that he would possibly be doing a cameo, or just be looking forward to a potential guest spot from a former TNG co-star like Marina Sirtis, it could simply be that the former TNG star wants to get up to speed on the latest Star Trek and see what Alex Kurtzman has been up to, now that he is the new king of Trek on TV.

Trek is alive

With Paramount developing two Star Trek feature films and CBS developing multiple Star Trek TV shows, it looks like it is a good time to be a Trekkie.

TrekMovie will provide updates on all of these exciting projects as more information becomes available.