Sir Patrick Stewart has been doing more publicity for his new movie The Kid Who Would Be King, and talking more about his upcoming return to Star Trek as Jean-Luc Picard along the way. We have gathered some highlights from his most recent appearances.

The show has a title and is being written by “brilliant minds”

Appearing on ITV’s This Morning in the UK, Stewart talked about the secrecy around the show.

We are trying to keep it under covers as much as possible, because that we hope will entice people to tune in and watch it, and then get taken up in the new world that The Next Generation is now inhabiting.

And speaking to Ireland’s RTE, Stewart brought it up again, revealing there is something important they are holding back:

I can’t even tell you the title of the series, all these things are banned.

Stewart did confirm the previous reports that the show would be shot in California (and not in Toronto where Star Trek: Discovery is filmed) and spoke more about the creative team:

I can tell you we are shooting in California and we have some brilliant people working on this show. The writers’ room is filled with brilliant minds. This morning the novel I began to read is by one of our principal writers, Michael Chabon, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and he is helping write our new show.

In addition to Kurtzman and Chabon, the creative team for the Picard series includes Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (also consulting producer on Star Trek: Discovery), Emmy nominee James Duff (co-creator of The Closer, who joined Discovery as an executive producer later in the second season), and Kirsten Beyer (executive story editor for Discovery and Star Trek novelist).

Stewart talks up being executive producer and gives a new specific time setting

Appearing on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show, Stewart talked about how he is doing something new for the Picard series:

I still can’t quite fully take it on board, because I am not only reviving Jean-Luc Picard, but I’m also co-executive producer, which I have never done before.

During the same segment, Stewart gave a slightly different assessment as to the setting of the series:

We are reviving a Picard story. It is exactly 19 years in the future, which is how time has passed since the last time I put on my space suit … I mean for the television series.

The time setting differs from what has been stated in other interviews, and in his original announcement — where Patrick Stewart said the show takes place 20 years after the film Star Trek: Nemesis, which was set in the year 2379. If the show were set 19 years after the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series finale (“All Good Things…”), that would put it in 2389, or only 10 years after the events in Nemesis. If the show were set 20 years after Nemesis – as Stuart has said before – it would be set in 2399. It’s unclear if his comment on the BBC was a more specific time setting, or if Stewart just misspoke. In terms of canon, there does not appear to be any major difference. The event that is key to the Picard show – as stated by executive producer Alex Kurtzman – is the destruction of Romulus, which takes place in the year 2387.

Excited to return to Jean-Luc Picard, show reflects today

On ITV’s This Morning Patrick Stewart again talked about what it took to get him to say yes to returning to Star Trek:

I never believed this would or could happen, because there have been innumerous ideas and offers to bring the character or the series back in some way, and I have always had to say, “No that is the past. I am proud of what we did, but it is not going to be revived. Certainly not in the shape of Patrick Stewart.” Then I met with the producers and the wonderful and clever people they had for this and it’s quite different from The Next Generation. It is twenty years on, which is exactly how much time has passed since we wrapped the series in Los Angeles. With every day that goes by as the production draws nearer, I get more and more excited.

And in his interview with RTE, Stewart gave this brief summary of the show:

What has happened in the last 20 years since the last time Jean-Luc Picard has been on-screen. That is the story we are telling. The world is a different place. Actually, it’s funny. Everything I seem to touch these days is reflecting conditions here in the UK, or in the United States. It seems to me, or maybe I am just wishing it were so.

Stewart’s comment about how his recent projects reflect modern times refers back to an earlier point in the RTE interview when he discussed how The Kid Who Would Be King dealt with the issue of a “divided Britain.” Sir Patrick is active in UK politics and has been an outspoken opponent of Brexit, which continues to dominate British politics. Last week Stewart also said the show “references the present day at times.” As for how the world Picard finds himself in being different, executive producer Alex Kurtzman recently revealed: “Picard’s life was radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire.”

Could all of this add up to Picard dealing with a “divided Federation”? Could the destruction of Romulus have a profound impact on their cousins the Vulcans, who are founding members of the Federation? Will the Picard show deal with Vulxit?

Stewart demonstrates French Picard

Another fun bit that Stewart did on The Graham Norton Show was to demonstrate the “experiment” done at Paramount in the 80s of what a French Jean-Luc Picard would have sounded like. Watch that below.

Keep up with all the news on the Picard show and other upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.