The next Star Trek series is ready to engage. Production officially begins today on CBS All Access' still-untitled Star Trek series featuring Patrick Stewart's return to the role of Jean-Luc Picard. Writer/producer Michael Chabon shared a photo from set announced that today is the "First day!" of production on the "untitled Picard project." You can take a look below.

In addition to Stewart, the new Star Trek series also stars Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd. The Picard series is filming in California. The show is set decades after fans last saw Picard in the film Star Trek: Nemesis.

The first two episodes of the Picard series will be directed by Hanelle, Culpepper, making her the first woman to helm the launch of a new Star Trek series in the franchise’s 53-year history. Stewart's The Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes will direct the third and fourth episodes.

View this post on Instagram First Day! #untitledpicardproject A post shared by Michael Chabon (@michael.chabon) on Apr 22, 2019 at 7:43am PDT

Culpepper made her Star Trek debut directing the episode “Vaulting Ambition” in Star Trek: Discovery’s first season.

“Hanelle is a gifted and dynamic filmmaker whose directorial choices are always deeply rooted in character,” Alex Kurtzman, Discovery’s co-creator, executive producer and showrunner said when Culpepper's involvement with Picard was announced. “I’ve been a fan of her work since she started with us on Discovery, and she’s the perfect person to re-introduce the beloved character of Picard to longtime fans and new viewers alike. We’re thrilled she’s joining our Trek family on this next adventure.”

Culpepper is working with producers and a writers’ room that share her love of Picard. Kurtzman told ComicBook.com at the TCA 2019 Winter Press Tour about that and about how the new show differs from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

“Everybody in that room loves Jean-Luc Picard very deeply, and obviously, the benefit that we have is that Jean-Luc Picard is in the room with us,” Kurtzman said. “And so, as we're breaking story , we're asking ourselves, ‘How do we live to the spirit, and to the character, and for the tone that Next Gen set, but also make it something very, very different in other ways?’ And Patrick was really clear with us from the beginning. He did not want to repeat what he had already done. And by the way, it's been 20 plus years, so he couldn't possibly be that same person anymore.

“And so, the question becomes, ‘What has happened to him in that period of time? Have there been occurrences that forced him to reckon with choices that he's made in his life? How do you hold on to being the person everybody loved when the circumstances around you may have changed so radically?’ And those are the big questions that we're asking.”

Are you excited to see the new Picard series? Let us know in the comments. The Picard is expected to premiere in late 2019 on CBS All Access.

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