TrekMovie had a chance to speak to some of the cast and crew of Star Trek: Discovery at a press event on Friday, including executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin, who is also president of Kurtzman’s production company Secret Hideout. In their case, the discussion focused on the recently announced plan for Kurtzman and Secret Hideout to expand the Star Trek television universe beyond Discovery. They also revealed one of the writers for the upcoming Short Treks announced at the main SDCC panel.

A Star Trek Cinematic Universe on TV with different tones and formats

How true is it than you are now in charge of a “Star Trek Cinematic Universe,” on television? Is that what really is going on?

Alex Kurtzman: On television, that is true. We are doing a lot of work on building out the universe, and we’re wanting to take our time, but there’s a lot of exciting things on the horizon.

And this is beyond Discovery?

Kurtzman: [nods yes]

Would it be fair to say it’s all set in the Prime Universe, but possibly different time periods?

Heather Kadin: Well I also think it’s important to say that it’s not just one hour drama. I mean, there’s so much opportunity to “bend not break” the franchise in formats we haven’t seen in a while, different tones. And what’s amazing about Star Trek is that it’s such a beloved franchise that we have writers calling – I mean, Michael Chabon, who wrote one of the shorts that Aldis Hodge is starring in – Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is like “Hey, I want to write a short for you for $2.55”. So we get people from all different tones – comedy writers, animation writers, who just want so desperately to be a part of Trek.

Kurtzman: [People] who love it, who loved it since they were kids, and to just have the opportunity to play in the toy store, so amazing.

Animated series? Picard? Khan?

So the animated is definitely going to happen?

Kadin: Conversations…

Kurtzman: It’s a conversation, yeah.

And you’re looking for other places besides CBSAA, like there’s possibly a CW thing?

Kadin: I think right now it’s fair to say the plan is that any and all live-action Star Trek will be on CBS All Access.

Any reaction to either the Wrath of Khan story or the Picard story?…There are rumors, care to debunk, or is it alive?

Kurtzman: I mean, they sound super cool, I’m a huge fan of both stories, it’d be really cool to see something like that.

Watch interview

More from SDCC

There will be more exclusive interviews coming up from the Discovery press event, along with a press conference report. You may also want to check out our full panel report.

We have also been covering Star Trek merchandise and other Trek-related activities and panels from SDCC, with more on the way. Click here to see all our SDCC 2018 coverage.