The new Picard series starring Patrick Stewart will be the first SStarTrek television series to explore the Prime Timeline after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and the destruction of Romulus in 2009’s Star Trek movie.

Fans are eager to see what the new future of the Star Trek universe looks like. At the TCA Winter 2019 Press Tour, executive producer Alex Kurtzman explained how they are approaching designing that future.

“Well, I'll tell you the first thing we all said is it has to feel grounded,” Kurtzman tells ComicBook.com. “No matter what choices we're making about portraying the future, it has to feel grounded, because I think one of the things people have loved so much about Next Gen is that it is a very emotional, thoughtful, grounded piece of entertainment. And the easy thing to do is come up with crazy floating skyscrapers, and all the cliches of science fiction, and we've tried to avoid that across the board.

“So, in the production design, in the look of it, in the feel of it, it's always about the small intimate personal details that you can still connect to now even though it's taking place so far in the future.”

Kurtzman did confirm that production and set design is already underway.

“We start shooting in like two and a half months,” Kurtzman said, reaffirming the show's April start of production..

In a recent interview, Stewart teased that fans will find the Star Trek universe a changed place.

“The story is great...but it references the present day at times,” Stewart says. “And that’s all I can say. I’m not saying we’re in the present day. We’re not, we’re not. But the world that we find Jean-Luc Picard in is not quite the world that we left him in.”

Kurtzman also stated in a previous interview that the destruction of Romulus had a significant effect on Picard’s life.

"Picard's life was radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire," Kurtzman said.

Rumor has it that Picard may no longer be a Starfleet captain by the time the series takes place, as Stewart himself hinted at when he announced his return.

“He may not be a captain anymore,” Stewart said at Star Trek Las Vegas in 2018. “He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognize and know so well. It may be a very different individual. Someone who has been changed by his experiences. 20 years will have passed...We have no scripts as yet, we’re just talking, talking, talking storylines. It will be, I promise you, I guarantee it, something very, very different, but it will come to you with the same passion and determination and love of the material and love of our followers and our fans exactly as we had it before.”

Are you excited to see Star Trek’s post-Nemesis future? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The new Picard series is expected to debut on CBS All Access in late 2019.

Additional reporting by Scott Huver.

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