(Photo by Prime Video)

The Best TV Shows of 2023: Every Certified Fresh Series

Updated: December 28, 2023

Rotten Tomatoes’ list of top shows of 2023 (so far) compiles the TV and streaming seasons that debuted in the U.S. this year and were designated Certified Fresh.

To be Certified Fresh, seasons must score at least 75% on the Tomatometer, with at least 20 critic reviews (five of those from Top Critics). Shows retain their Certified Fresh status even if they fall below 75%, as long as the scores stay at 70% or above.

Just added: Percy Jackson, Invincible, Reacher, Lessons in Chemistry limited series, Goosebumps season 1, For All Mankind season 4

---

Read Also: The Best Movies of 2023

(Photo by ©2023 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

For Star Trek Day, we decided to have a look at how all of the Star Trek films and TV shows across the entire universe rank together. Interestingly, the most recent entry in the franchise came out on top. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — led by Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock — boasts two Certified Fresh seasons at 99% and 97% on the Tomatometer. Not too bad for the youngster of a franchise whose history goes back 57 years to its inception with the original Star Trek series created by Gene Roddenberry.

---

Related:
• Star Trek TV Series Ranked by Tomatometer
• All Star Trek Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

---

It’s worth noting that while SNW has a 98% average Tomatometer on 84 reviews across two seasons, the 2009 reboot film Star Trek in the No. 2 position is Certified Fresh on 356 reviews. Some might argue that the film’s volume of reviews makes it the top title, but if we want to start nitpicking on the franchise level, the series also represents 57 hours of programming compared to the film’s 2 hours and 7 minutes. Perhaps the audience score can settle the debate: a 78% average for the series versus 91% for the film. And should No. 3, The Animated Series, even be counted with its relatively meager 18 reviews?

And no “probably” about it, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is officially — by Tomatometer standards anyway — the worst of the franchise.

What do you think? Tell us which is your favorite Star Trek movie or series in the comments. 

Star Trek movies and series can be viewed by subscription on Paramount+, and purchased on demand on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV, and elsewhere.

(Photo by Paramount+/CBS)

Star Trek TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer

Updated: September 8, 2023

The Star Trek universe kicked off in 1966 with the original series, created by science fiction visionary Gene Roddenberry, and later exploded into a massive film and TV juggernaut.

While the original series, which starred William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, saw only three seasons, it made an indelible impression on the sci-fi genre. Live-action TV follow-up Star Trek: The Next Generation, with Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard leading an ensemble cast, captivated viewers from 1987–1994 and inspired three more series that would air within the next decade: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,  Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Starting with 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount Pictures has been regularly cranking out Trek films with the original series and Next Generation casts, as well as a rebooted version in 2009 with Chris Pine as Starfleet Academy cadet James Kirk and Zachary Quinto as young Spock. (See the Star Trek films ranked here.)

In 2017, Trek returned to small screens with season 1 of CBS All Access streaming title Star Trek: Discovery, set during a tumultuous wartime era about a decade before the original and starring Sonequa Martin-Green. The new series marked a TV franchise reboot by Alex Kurtzman, writer on the 2009 Star Trek film and its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.

---

RELATED: All Star Trek Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

---

The year 2020 gave fans a celebration of one of its most iconic characters with the premiere of Star Trek: Picard and Stewart reprising his role in the new streaming series that launched its second season in 2022. New live-action series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was also released in 2022, and its first season was quickly Certified Fresh with a 100% Tomatometer score (it has since dropped to 99% on one review). The show’s second season, released in 2023, was nearly as well received and is Certified Fresh at 97% on the Tomatometer.

The TV franchise has since introduced two animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, about the misfit support crew on one of Starfleet’s least-important ships, and kid-friendly Star Trek: Prodigy, which tells the story of a diverse group of teens who inadvertently become the crew of a prize starship and learn important lessons in their subsequent adventures. The latter series — No. 3 on our list below — has since been canceled by Paramount+, but a petition to save the show has gathered over 33,000 signatures.

Have a look below to find out which series score highest with critics in our Trek TV by Tomatometer list.

Disagree with the results? Tell us in the comments which series you think should have been ranked higher (or lower).

---

While the modern Star Trek evokes a lot of impassioned debate, one series that struck a positive chord with lots of fans is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Taking the 1965 Star Trek pilot as a starting point — and importing actors Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck from Star Trek: Discovery as Captain Christopher Pike, Commander Una Chin-Riley, and Lt. Spock — it recommitted to the original series format. Each episode revolved around a complete assignment or issue for the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise to manage. Characters grew and some ideas carried on from episode-to-episode, but the hour-long storytelling proved satisfying. And, thankfully, it proved successful enough for Paramount+ to order subsequent season, with season 2 premiering on the service on Thursday.

The new year of the Enterprise’s ongoing mission continues the episodic adventures of Star Trek’s most famous starship a decade or so before James T. Kirk assumes command. As the various trailers have revealed, the crew’s assignments continue to be varied, action-packed, personal, and emotional.

---

(Photo by Pari Dukovic/Paramount+)

Click image to open full poster in a new tab.

When Rotten Tomatoes had a chance to talk to the show’s cast and crew, we asked if the new season leans a little harder into emotional jeopardy than its debut run.

“It is definitely the thing we chase,” executive producer Akiva Goldsman said. “Our whole show is emotional stories in space. Whether it be driving plot or it be driving the moral of the story, that’s our mechanism with this cast.”

“We do enter physical danger at different times,” Mount added, guaranteeing fans of Trek action will not be left wanting even as the crew face a few more internal conflicts early in the season.

---

According to Romijn, “At the top of the season, there’s a lot of [emotional arcs]. But later on in the season, we’re definitely entering into very strange new worlds, way outside of the box.”

Her character, Cmdr. Chin-Riley, will definitely be going on an emotional journey early in the season as she faces the consequences of the season 1 finale, but as previews also revealed, she will be more at ease when she returns to the Enterprise.

“[She] made this decision to come out and live authentically and stop hiding,” Romijn explained. “I think releasing herself of those shackles was definitely a choice that I made coming back to free up Una in lots of ways … that’s a tremendous pressure that’s been released.”

---

Pike’s emotional journey will be more of a slow burn. While he has embraced his eventual future – as revealed to him in the second season of Discovery and further amplified by Strange New Worlds’ season 1 finale – to some extent, accepting a life of any sort still presents issues unrelated to fate.

“I don’t think that he came through the first season and went, ‘OK, well, I’m cured.’ I think that it’s a hill to climb every day to make yourself continually realize that it’s about the journey and not the destination,” Mount explained.

For Goldsman, finding a new way to focus on Pike’s emotional journey was important step.

“We’ve worked with his arc and the knowledge of his death significantly in season 1, and now we wanted to pivot,” he said. “What can happen when you know when you’re going to die or when you know your life is limited is you can embrace it? So we offered that as a chance for Anson to do something different.”

That difference? Well, it may have something to do with Captain Bartel (Melanie Scrofano) and their on/off relationship, as seen in Strange New World’s first season.

---

Peck, whose Lt. Spock still divides his attentions between his duties and his engagement, felt the emotions often come from the jeopardy the crew faces on every planet and mission.

“Universe annihilation potential puts everyone on edge,” he said.

Of course, the trailers are teasing a different sort of edge as – after nearly 60 years of fan fiction – Strange New Worlds is exploring the non-affair between Spock and Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Or, at least, that may be the case. Either way, the characters spend more time together than they did on the Original Series (played there by Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett, respectively) and Peck is convinced the dynamic between them is part of what launched so much fanfic about them.

“The two characters really complement one another,” he said. “She really embodies this element of chaos, and Spock embodies this logic, obviously. They are like yin and yang together.

Bush added the will-they-won’t-they element embedded in the characters since Barrett’s Nurse Chapel first revealed any attraction to the Vulcan science officer is part of the enduring appeal: “That tension buildup is just … people just want to see what happens.”

---

One element she appreciates about Strange New Worlds‘ treatment of the dynamic is the way it ended up more “real and colored” than handful of moments TOS could lend to it across 79 episodes.

“It’s not just like she’s got a crush on him and he doesn’t want a bar of it. It’s layered,” she explained. No matter how it plays out, though, Bush said the complex treatment of it is “very satisfying.”

According to Goldman’s fellow executive producer, Henry Alonso Myers, part of the appeal in revisiting the potential relationship is the way it can be explored now versus the way it was presented in the ’60s.

“We also wanted to give Chapel a real chance to understand her perspective as a character,” he added.

A further wrinkle, though, is the work the show put into making Spock’s fiancée, T’Pring (Gia Sandhu), a more fleshed out character whose bond with Spock is more than just a distant arranged marriage.

“We’ve set up these stories,” Myers said. “We have an opportunity to really dig in and go into the why and how.”

---

The Spock/Christine Chapel story isn’t the only call-forward to TOS this season as Paul Wesley returns to the show as James T. Kirk. Serving as a lieutenant aboard the Farragut, he still has a ways to go until he takes the center seat from Pike, but the swagger – glimpsed last season in an alternate timeline – is already present.

“I do think people are born with a level of confidence,” Wesley explained.

Nevertheless, he said the Lt. Kirk viewers are about to meet is “figuring himself out.” Although some of his personality will be readily apparent, like his “flirtatious” side, the fact he’s “not in charge of a ship” will offer a side of Kirk rarely seen before.

“He loves people,” the actor teased.

---

(Photo by Paramount+)

Carol Kane, newly joining the series as Chief Engineer Pelia, was surprised by the emphasis on the emotional toll space adventuring takes on the characters.

“The kind of fullness of the emotional stories going on is a wonderful, important layer because you can relate to them better,” Kane said.

With a career as diverse as Kane’s, she never expected to be part of Star Trek, yet found the experience “unique” and “fun.” It is a sensation mirrored by Pelia when she gets aboard the Enterprise.

“That set is gigantic and has so much history, and I’m just running in brand new to it,” she said.

Pelia also has history, which will be explored in season 2. Kane admitted to not knowing “precisely” how deep that history will be delved, but it did lead to some not-quite-Starfleet moments. “I drank the beer,” she teased.

---

A crewman closer to the jeopardy the ship faces each week is Melissa Navia’s Lt. Erica Ortegas, the primary helmsman. To her, the peril to the crew and the emotional fallout is inexorably intertwined.

“We’re still doing an adventure a week where we’re going to a new planet and we’re coming up against something that we didn’t expect,” Navia said. “Then also we have those inter-crew relationships, and then we have our characters who are dealing with imposter syndrome, or dealing with angst, or dealing with anger that they haven’t dealt with, and yet also having to get the job done right, because at the heart of it, everyone’s in Starfleet because they’re really good at what they do.”

---

One capable person who was unsure if she would remain after last season was Cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). Nevertheless, she’s still aboard working the communication console. To Gooding, Uhura’s continued presence aboard the Enterprise reflects the character’s appreciation of “the gradient of it all” and an indication that she is “definitely more sure of herself.”

“Her inherent curiosity and her inherent inquisitiveness doesn’t stop when it gets to herself, I think it only deepens,” she added.

Now, Uhura faces a new question: how does she then show up in a way that is an aid to her team and not in a way that is a burden?

“We’re continuing the journey of growing this young girl into the very well established, self-assured woman that we know is coming because we know and love her,” she said.

Ortegas, meanwhile, faces almost the inverse issue. She knows exactly what she brings to the crew, but nevertheless wants to stretch her legs. One clip from season 2 making the rounds (embedded above) sees the helmsman giddy to be part of an away team, only to be pulled back to the helm at the last moment. To the actor, that desire reflects the character’s past as a soldier and a want to “be helpful to her crew in any and every way possible.”

---

The multifaceted quality of the characters, and the actors who play them, will be a continuing theme in Strange New Worlds’ second season.

“Babs [Olusanmokun], in real life, is this incredible fighter that you do not want to go up against,” Navia said. “It has become a core part of his character on the show.”

Olusanmokun will reveal Dr. M’Benga’s abilities as a combatant pretty quickly into the year – a sequence he said required, “a lot of training, a lot of rehearsal, stunt rehearsal, getting thrown around, throwing people around, getting punched, [and] punching people.” But as the doctor has never been just one thing on Strange New Worlds, he also nurtures the crew as an almost de facto ship’s counselor.

“He’s somebody that the rest of the crew trusts, obviously, and so they find their way to him and he tries to listen as much as possible,” he said of this emerging element to M’Benga.

---

And as for his military training and actions during the Klingon War? “I believe more of his past will be revealed,” he teased.

As Star Trek fans know, the emotional peril of starship life necessitated a full-time ship’s counselor aboard the 24th century’s Enterprise — Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Lt. Cmdr. Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) — but does the crew’s reliance on M’Benga mean Strange New Worlds needs a Troi of their own?

Myers joked, “Maybe in the future. That’s a good idea for future episodes that take place maybe up to 100 years later.”

Mount wasn’t so sure.

“The conversations that are happening with a [hypothetical] therapist character … maybe they should be having with the other characters that are already there,” Mount said. And, as it happens, it is Star Trek tradition to allow its crews direct resolution as opposed to formalized therapy. And even Counselor Troi had other duties on TNG.

“The backbone of Pike and Una’s relationship, also, is hearing each other out, being a shoulder for each other,” Romijn added.

The way the characters interrelate on that emotional level is something Goldsman seized on when he saw how well the ensemble worked together.

“Our actors are extraordinary,” he said. “This is the gold of the show. If we write it, they can do it.”

So, while the mission is still to seek out new life forms and civilizations, it is also to better understand the life — emotional and physical — seeking it out as crewman and friends.

97% Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season 2 (2023) premiere, “The Broken Circle,” is now streaming on Paramount+.

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

Star Trek: Picard is a Certified Fresh hit once again with its third season at 98% on the Tomatometer. And if the series finale has you ready to engage in similar shows, we’ve got five more like this that you should check out next. Along with more Star Trek and other great sci-fi shows, this list will be your “number one” as we boldly go where — not gonna lie — some have probably gone before.

---

BRAND-NEW PICK:

94% Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,  a spin-off of the series Star Trek: Discovery, follows Captain Kirk’s predecessor on the Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike, as he navigates the decade leading up to the original series.

With a 99% Certified Fresh first season under its belt, it’s clear critics are totally on board. And the consensus gives praise for “recapturing the sense of boundless discovery that defined the franchise’s roots.”

A second season of this Emmy-nominated show arrives June 15. In the meantime, you’ll need about 9 hours to check out the first season.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Paramount+ | buy season 1 on Vudu, Prime Video, or Apple TV

---

THROWBACK PICK:

80% Star Trek (Paramount+)

Our throwback pick takes us back to the ’60s with the super-groovy original Star Trek series.

And sure, it’s a bit obvious but it’s also a must for this list — whether you’ve seen it already or not. Considered ahead of its time on many levels, it ran from ’66 to ’69 and gave us some pretty iconic characters, ultimately creating a franchise that has lived long and — done pretty well.

Star Trek has an overall Fresh score of 80% for the series with a Certified Fresh first season at 92%. And if you’re not sure about heading back this far for a show, the consensus form critics reminds us that it “may look dated, but its gadgetry and solid storytelling solidify its place as one of pop culture’s most enduring franchises.”

You’ll need about 66 hours to watch all three seasons.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Paramount+ | buy seasons 1-3 on Vudu, Prime Video, or Apple TV

---

AUDIENCE PICK: 

95% Battlestar Galactica (Peacock)

Battlestar Galactica is a re-imagining of the ’70s show that ran from 2004 to 2009. It was created by Ronald D. Moore who had previously worked on three different Star Trek series and went on to create the Starz fantasy series Outlander — so he knows what’s up, in other words.

This Edward James Olmos–led show earned 19 Emmy nominations and three wins. And not only was it a hit with fans, but critics also loved it, calling it a “captivating combination of riveting political drama and science fiction.”

You can watch all 74 episodes in just over 54 hours.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Peacock | buy seasons 1-4 on Vudu, Prime Video, or Apple TV

---

EDITORS’ PICK:

77% The Orville (Hulu)

This sci-fi dramedy was created by Seth MacFarlane and is set 400 years in the future on an exploratory ship, that is facing both intergalactic and everyday life problems.

The series has a strong cast led by MacFarlane along with Adrianne Palicki and carries Fresh 77% Tomatometer and 89% Audience scores for its three-season run. Critics call The Orville “fun, focused and surprisingly thoughtful.”

You’re looking at about 26 hours of binge time for this series.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Hulu and Disney+ | buy seasons 1-3 on Vudu, Prime Video, or Apple TV

---

CERTIFIED FRESH PICK:

95% The Expanse (Prime Video)

And finally, our Certified Fresh pick this week is Prime Video’s The Expanse. This one is set in a not-so-distant future where humanity has colonized the solar system. And clearly fans couldn’t get enough, considering they campaigned to save the show after it was canceled by Syfy.

With six very Fresh seasons, critics like The Expanse because it “blends sci-fi elements and detective noir into a visually compelling whole.”

You’re going to need nearly 62 hours to get through this one. But if you take it one hour at a time, it will only take 62 hours. You’re welcome.

Where to Watch: by subscription on Prime Video | buy seasons 1-6 on Vudu or Apple TV

---

89% Star Trek: Picard  is now streaming in its entirety on Paramount+.

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

Excited fans took to the floor of the Jacob Javits Convention Center to celebrate their favorite TV shows and highly-anticipated new films at New York Comic Con over the weekend. While attendees buzzed over exclusive items, collectibles, and freebies on the show floor, a curated selection of programming rooms, stage panels, and Q&A events provided news reveals that echoed beyond the convention halls.

Here are the top highlights as they were presented at NYCC:

---

Day One, Thursday October 6:

His Dark Materials season 3 finally has a trailer, and a premiere date

“The Amber Spyglass,” the final book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series gets the adaptation treatment in the third and final season of HBO and BBC’s landmark fantasy series. Get ready for elephants on wheels, a whole load of angels, tiny folks who ride insects to and fro, and of course, hell.

84% His Dark Materials season 3 premieres on Dec. 5 on HBO Max.

---

The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer boasts an all-star cast

It’s been three decades since the notoriously cheesy ’90s live-action adaptation of Nintendo’s massively popular video game franchise hit theaters. Illumination Animation and Universal finally unleashed the first trailer for their highly-anticipated The Super Mario Bros. Movie at New York Comic Con and its cast is superb. Chris Pratt plays Mario, Charlie Day is Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach, Jack Black goes full villain as Bowser, Seth Rogen is Donkey Kong and Keegan-Michael Key plays Toad.

59% The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) premieres on April 7, 2023, nationwide in theaters.

---

Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches continues the author’s legacy on AMC

In its continued effort to expand the Anne Rice story universe on television, AMC+ is gearing up to bring The Mayfair Witches to the small screen. The official trailer for the series dropped before the show’s NYCC panel, and ensures the author’s enduring legacy is firmly in-tact.

Stars Alexandra Daddario (Dr. Rowan Fielding), Harry Hamlin (Cortland Mayfair), Tongayi Chirisa (Ciprien Grieve) and Jack Huston (Lasher) joined executive producers Esta Spalding, Mark Johnson and Michelle Ashford on stage after the clip came to an end. How will this series differ from the witch stories that came before it? According to Ashford, the idea of telling a story of witches — aka, healers who were demonized by society — felt absolutely relevant to present day.

Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches premieres Thursday, January 5, 2023, on AMC+.

---

Mindy Kaling’s Scooby Doo spinoff Velma is an adult animated series without Scooby

In the vein of raucous animated programs like Rick and Morty and Harley Quinn, Warner Bros. Animation’ Velma digs into the high school origin story of the orange-turtleneck wearing, be-spectacled Velma Dinkley. Gone is the family friendly vibe of previous Scooby Doo installments, making way for some blood-spattered horror goodness and thought-provoking adult themes to take shape.

During the NYCC panel, showrunner Charlie Grandy explained the omission of everyone’s favorite burger-loving Great Dane.

“What made Scooby-Doo a kid show is Scooby-Doo,” Grandy said. “We couldn’t have a take on it, like, How can we do this in a fun and modern way?”

It turns out, their efforts to keep Scoob out of things lined up with Warner Bros. Animation saying they couldn’t use him anyway. Without Scooby, the series is able to differentiate itself, fully leaning into its adult tone.

It’s still a high school series, though. Mindy Kaling, who doesn’t just voice Velma, but also executive produces the series, tapped into her knack for bringing high school stories to life, here. The Never Have I Ever show creator revealed her love of exploring “people from different social strata find[ing] something in common.”

With a uniquely diverse cast, and various themes of identity being explored, Kaling assured the crowd that this series is completely in her wheelhouse: “We get to see all the high school events and dances in addition to it being a murder mystery.”

Joining Kaling in the series is Constance Wu, who plays Daphne, Sam Richardson’s Norville (who will also go by “Shaggy), and Glenn Howerton’s Fred.

Velma will premiere in 2023 on HBO Max.

---

The Legend of Vox Machina drops trailer for season 2, and exciting season 3 news

Ahead of the second season of Prime Video’s hit animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, the cast announced to the NYCC crowd the exciting news that a third season is now in the cards. The series is based on the characters and adventures as originally featured in Critical Role, the web series phenomenon that follows a cast of voice actors as they play through various Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.

As the official season 2 synopsis states: “After saving the realm from evil and destruction at the hands of the most terrifying power couple in Exandria, Vox Machina is faced with saving the world once again — this time, from a sinister group of dragons known as the Chroma Conclave.”

100% The Legend of Vox Machina season 2 premieres in January on Prime Video.

---

Adult Animated Koala Man Adds Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, and Jarrad Wright with Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving set to make guest appearances

(Photo by Hulu)

Hulu paneled the upcoming original adult animated series Koala Man on Thursday and announced the casting of Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, and Jarrad Wright with Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving set to make guest appearances. Previously announced cast includes Hugh Jackman, Sarah Snook, Demi Lardner, and creator Michael Cusack. Koala Man follows middle-aged dad Kevin (Cusack) and his titular not-so-secret identity, whose only superpower is a passion for following rules and battling petty crime in the town of Dapto, an Australian suburb.

---

Day Two, Friday, October 7:

The Wheel of Time drops the highly-anticipated trailer for season 2

Season 2 of The Wheel of Time has been wrapped for some time and finally, during Friday’s panel for the series (which was partnered with Prime Video’s other fantasy juggernaut series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power), series creator Rafe Judkins offered fans a peek at what’s to come in the new episodes.

During the presentation, Judkins teased the inclusion of the Seanchan, a magical army of invaders who appear in Robert Jordan’s second Wheel Of Time book. The villainous entities with the long metal nails can be seen briefly in the trailer above. Gone from the series is Barney Harris, who played Mat Cauthon in season 1, with Dónal Finn taking over as the character. We may not have a premiere date yet, but by the looks of the season 2 trailer, the situation seems dire for Moiraine, Lan, Rand al’Thor, and the gang.

81% The Wheel of Time: Season 1 (2021) is now streaming on Prime Video.

---

The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season finale trailer gives a first look at Sauron

Say hello to Sauron! Prime Video released a trailer teasing the epic season finale for Lord of the Rings prequel series, Rings of Power during the show’s panel. And by the looks of things, this upcoming week’s episode will finally bring Mordor’s big bad to the small-screen.

Some other noteworthy tidbits were released regarding the show’s future on the platform. Given the good news that the series was renewed for a second season, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were absent from the NYCC panel. They’re in pre-production on the new episodes which will switch shooting locations from New Zealand to London. Not to mention, Felicia Day has been tapped to host an eight-episode companion podcast that will go live on October 14, just in time to talk about season 1’s end.

With a five-season plan in place, Prime Video seems to have plenty of confidence in the high-budget fantasy series. Just where things will go is anyone’s guess, but it sure will be pretty to look at once season 2 premieres.

84% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1 (2022) concludes on Friday, October 14 on Prime Video.

---

Good Omens season 2 gets a premiere date, and noteworthy additions to the cast

(Photo by Prime Video)

Neil Gaiman appeared to tease Good Omens’ anticipated summer 2023 return to Prime Video. While he was mostly tight-lipped about specific story details for the six new episodes, he did hint at a love story being in the cards. Whether that romance is between Michael Sheen’s angel Aziraphale and David Tennant’s demon Crowley is anyone’s guess.

During the New York Comic Con panel, some new casting details were released for season 2 and some familiar faces are returning to play new characters. Actresses Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya, who portrayed nuns in the first installment of the show, are returning to play new characters, aptly named Maggie and Nina.

(Photo by Prime Video)

“There were two characters in it,” Gaiman shared coyly, “and I wanted them played by Maggie and Nina. In order to make it clear to everyone reading the script that those characters were going to be played by Maggie and Nina, I called them Maggie and Nina.”

“I play Maggie,” Service added. “She runs a record shop, which is besides Aziraphale’s bookshop in SoHo. It’s a shop that’s been passed through the generations. My shop look looks across …”

“… another shop, which is a coffee shop” Sosanya added, explaining her character. “It’s called Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death. Nina is a bit mintier than I am. She runs this independent coffee shop in SoHo. She is good at dealing with people who come into a coffee shop in SoHo. She’s not afraid of dealing with people.”

(Photo by Prime Video)

A new addition to the cast is actress Quelin Sepulveda, who will be playing an angel named Muriel. She’s a completely new character in the Good Omens story canon. And, by all accounts, she’s just a friendly welcoming sort. Something that is a bit hard to come by in heaven, apparently.

“We realized that one thing we didn’t have in heaven was, apart from Aziraphale, any nice, well-meaning angels,” Gaiman continued. “All we had were bastards.”

(Photo by Prime Video)

“Muriel has spent about 6,000 years or more in the same office in heaven,” Gaiman added. “Just filing things and reading things, just hoping someone will come in and the day will get more interesting.”

Miranda Richardson is back in season 2, playing a demon named Shax who’s aiming to replace Crowley. And Shelley Conn takes over as Beelzebub in the new episodes.

(Photo by Prime Video)

(Photo by Prime Video)

86% Good Omens season 2 is expected to premiere in 2023 on Prime Video.

---

Teen Wolf: The Movie first look teases a very different Derek Hale

Paramount+ revealed a first look clip for the streamer’s upcoming Teen Wolf sequel movie, aptly titled Teen Wolf: The Movie. The film takes place 15 years after the end of the MTV series and checks in with Scott McCall, who, as star Tyler Posey revealed during the movie’s panel, “is not a teen wolf, anymore. He’s a 30-year-old wolf.” What does that mean, exactly? According to Posey, “It’s the first time we’ve seen him [try to be a normal human] since the pilot.” And, apparently, you can’t be a normal human without dealing with issues like, “depression, loneliness, and anxiety.”

As for the scene that was teased before the panel, Tyler Hoechlin (who reprises the role of Derek Hale) was unable to introduce the clip due to getting stuck in traffic. Writer Jeff Davis teased that Derek will also be shown “in a whole new light.” Being a father to Eli (Vince Mattis’ character) and taking on the role of mentor sure can change a wolf. Even though everyone has matured, the addition of Eli to the cast helps to “bring the teen back to Teen Wolf.”

32% Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023) premieres January 26, 2023, on Paramount+.

---

Sarah Michelle Gellar trades vampires for werewolves in first trailer for Wolf Pack

Wolf Pack is technically a Teen Wolf spinoff series, in that, both stories take place in the same story world, but that’s where the connection ends. Boasting the genre TV return of Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, the series follows four teenagers brought together after a California wildfire sparks a werewolf attack.

Gellar plays arson investigator Kristin Ramsey, who also has some helpful supernatural insight. Joining her in the series is Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson, and Tyler Lawrence Gray, all of whom appeared in front of the New York Comic Con crowd to promote the show.

Explaining why she chose to return to horror, Gellar said, “Utilizing the supernatural is how we explain the things we cannot really understand. The stories that we can’t really grasp, or the ones that would be too depressing in real life, and too upsetting. We use those to scare ourselves into understanding.”

44% Wolf Pack premieres January 26, 2023, on Paramount+.

---

Day Three, Saturday, October 8:

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 trailer introduces new outlaws and a new Starfleet captain

Star Trek owned New York Comic Con in Saturday with Paramount+ presenting a gargantuan Star Trek Universe panel to the packed event, promoting Star Trek: Discovery season 5, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season.

Sonequa Martin-Green hit the NYCC stage to share this first look trailer for season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery. The teaser gives a peek at new characters Rayner (played by Callum Keith Rennie), a hardened Starfleet captain; Moll (played by Eve Harlow), a criminal who faces off with the Discovery crew; and her partner, L’ak (played by Elias Toufexis).

84% Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premiere date is to be announced.

---

Star Trek: Prodigy‘s midseason return adds a familiar Starfleet officer to the cast

Star Trek veteran Ronny Cox was announced as a new addition to the voice cast on Star Trek: Prodigy.  Previously, Cox played the character of Edward Jellico in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, in the animated children’s series, he will reprise the role, who has moved up the ranks in Starfleet to Admiral status.

94% Star Trek: Prodigy: Season 1 (2021) makes its mid-season return on October 27 to Paramount+.

---

Star Trek: Picard reunites the Next Generation cast in the trailer for its third and final season

The trailer for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard delivered some epic fan service during the show’s panel at New York Comic Con. Some core Next Generation cast members joined Patrick Stewart on stage to tease the final episodes, including Brent Spiner (who has appeared as multiple characters throughout the first two seasons of Picard), LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis.

Amanda Plummer was revealed as the vengeful alien Vadic, who seeks to destroy Jean-Luc Picard and his old crew. This time around, Spiner will be playing Lore, Data’s evil android brother, who appeared multiple times throughout the original TNG run. Daniel Davis, who played the hologram version of Professor James Moriarty in The Next Generation, is also returning to Picard.

Adding some cool connective tissue to the casting of the series is the addition of Mica Burton, LeVar’s daughter, who will be playing Ensign Alandra La Forge, Geordi La Forge’s youngest daughter.

89% Star Trek: Picard season 3 will premiere February 16, 2023, on Paramount+.

---

The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan tease Dead City spinoff

(Photo by AMC)

During the final New York Comic Con panel for AMC’s The Walking Dead, a first look peek was given to The Walking Dead: Dead City, the network’s upcoming spinoff series starring Lauren Cohan as Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. It’s a pretty fitting tease, considering the fact that the apocalyptic new show is set in the Big Apple.

“The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror,” AMC said in its original press release for the series in March, back when it was titled Isle of the Dead.

Check out the other first look images below:

(Photo by AMC)

(Photo by AMC)

(Photo by AMC)

(Photo by AMC)

(Photo by AMC)

(Photo by AMC)

The Walking Dead: Dead City will premiere in April 2023 on AMC and AMC+.

---

Wednesday unleashes Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester in new trailer

Saturday was the day for Wednesday. During the panel for Netflix’s highly-anticipated Adams Family spinoff series, a new trailer was released upon the world giving the first ever looks at Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester, and the return of Christina Ricci — who played Wednesday Adams in both Adams Family movies — to Tim Burton’s story world.

The clip gave a deeper look at Wednesday’s high school experience at Nevermore Academy, where Ricci plays a professor named Miss Thornhill.

Armisen, who appeared as a surprise guest during the panel, confirmed he shaved his head to properly get in character. “I shaved my head because this was like a role [that] as soon as I heard about it, I was like, Oh, I gotta be Fester! I really wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it right and not have a bald cap or anything. So, I just shaved my head, and I was proud to do it.”

80% Wednesday will premiere on November 23 on Netflix.

---

Netflix’s Wendell & Wild drops full trailer to ring in the spooky season

During Saturday’s panel for Netflix’s highly-anticipated stop motion animated feature, director Henry Selick hit the stage to showcase the full trailer for the movie, and give some insight behind its humble humorous beginnings. And yes, this definitely links back to Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key’s groundbreaking sketch comedy series Key & Peele.

“I was so inspired by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and their range of subjects, characters,” Selick said. “By the third season I just said, I gotta reach out to those guys.”

Originally a seven-page story Selick wrote for his two sons, Peele joined the creative team and helped expand the story into the full-length movie.

80% Wendell & Wild (2022) premieres on October 28 on Netflix.

---

Day Four, Sunday, October 9:

Tom Welling joins CW’s Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters

Tom Welling, the actor best known for playing Clark Kent on Smallville, will be joining The Winchesters in the recurring role of Samuel Campbell, Mary’s (Meg Donnelly) dad. From the sound of things, the Winchester Family Business actually began with the Campbell family and Samuel here, as the announcement goes, taught Mary everything he knows. He will make his first appearance in the series in episode 7.

100% The Winchesters  premieres on Tuesday, October 11 on The CW.

---

Doom Patrol touches down with a new season 4 trailer

After a year of waiting, NYCC fans got a peek at the upcoming fourth season of Doom Patrol and, if anything, the show looks like it hasn’t at all lost its bizarre luster. It’s unclear if season 4 is the final run of the DC series, but considering the new addition of Madeline Zima to the cast (she’s playing Space Case, a superhero who was a bit part of the Gerard Way/Nick Derington run of the books), all signs are pointing to another bonkers fun outing for the rag-tag group of heroes.

98% Doom Patrol season 4 part 1 premieres December 8 on HBO Max.

---

Titans season 4 part 1 trailer gets dark and bloody

DC’s Titans is gearing up to get culty in its fourth season. During DC’s Sunday panel for the series at New York Comic Con, a new teaser dropped to whet our appetites for the coming episodes and by the looks of things, the show is about to get very bloody. Could the Church of Blood (the cult ran by villain Brother Blood) play a big part of the new season? It’s very possible. We’ll get the answers we seek in November.

89% Titans season 4, part 1 premieres Thursday, November 3 on HBO Max.

---

FX’s Kindred adaptation finally gets a premiere date

(Photo by FX)

FX’s new drama series Kindred, based on Hugo Award-winner Octavia E. Butler’s novel of the same name, will premiere all eight episodes on Tuesday, December 13 exclusively to Hulu. The announcement came during the Kindred panel presentation at New York Comic Con on Sunday, the closing day of the event.

Per the network’s official press release, the series follows Dana James (Mallori Johnson), “a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can settle into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time. She emerges at a 19th-century plantation, a place remarkably and intimately linked with Dana and her family. An interracial romance threads through Dana’s past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind.”

Starring alongside Johnson are Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, David Alexander Kaplan, Sophina Brown and Sheria Irving.

Kindred season 1 premieres Tuesday, December 13 on Hulu.

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

(Photo by Apple TV+, Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+)

Summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, of course, but the streaming giants are getting a jump on it with Memorial Day weekend’s epic offerings of Disney+ limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi and season 4 of Netflix horror phenomenon Stranger Things — two can’t-miss series that will continue their journeys into summer.

Drama is high with Peaky Blinders’ final season, part 2 of Better Call Saul’s sixth and last season, and limited series The Terminal List and Black Bird dropping, while comedies like Only Murders in the Building and What We Do in the Shadows will lighten the mood. Superheroes dot these hot summer months, including the premiere of Marvel’s She-Hulk and the third seasons of The Boys and Umbrella Academy.

Sci-fi — welcome back, Westworld! — teen dramedies, horror, and second Star Wars series of the season Andor fill out the schedule. Finally, the end of the season holds the premieres of two highly-anticipated prequels: HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon and Prime Video’s sprawling epic The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

With those gems and the others we note below in our list of 40 new and returning shows we can’t wait to see, it looks like summer 2022 might best be enjoyed at home.

---

---

Read Also: Everything We Know About Star Wars Series Obi-Wan Kenobi

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

(Photo by Ron Batzdorff/Peacock)

---

---

---

(Photo by FX)

---

---

(Photo by Colleen Hayes/Apple TV+)

---

---

---

---

---

(Photo by Apple TV+)

---

---

(Photo by FX)

---

---

(Photo by Shane Brown/FX)

---

(Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix)

---

---

---

Read Also: Everything We Know About Game of Thrones Prequel House of the Dragon

---

---

---

Read Also: Everything We Know About Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

---

---

Andor: Season 1 (2022)

Where to watch: Disney+
Release date: To be announced

The prequel to 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the series follows the early adventures of Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

In late 1964, NBC commissioned a pilot for a series called Star Trek. It featured Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise; Majel Barrett (going by M. Leigh Hudec at the time) as his first officer, the enigmatically named “Number One”; and Leonard Nimoy as Science Officer Spock, a devil-eared alien. NBC passed, but commissioned a second pilot with some alterations. Hunter and Barrett were gone, but Nimoy was partnered with William Shatner for the successful launch of Star Trek.

Pike and Number One would become interesting parts of the show’s history via reuse of the pilot in a two-part episode called “The Menagerie” and various appearances in spinoff media cross the decades before recurring throughout Star Trek: Discovery’s second season.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

And, after 55+ years, Pike, Number One, and Spock will finally be serving together aboard the Enterprise in Paramount+’s new series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

“We often joke that it’s the longest pilot series pickup in television history,” Anson Mount, who first appeared as Pike on Discovery, said of the connection between his show and the original Trek pilot when Rotten Tomatoes recently caught up with him, other members of the cast, and executive producer Akiva Goldsman.

Goldsman also highlighted those connections between the original series and Strange New Worlds in saying, “This is very much an attempt to convey the emotional values of the original series.”

---

(Photo by Marni Grossman/Paramount+)

As with the original, Strange New Worlds will tell episodic stories — that is, the Enterprise will warp into a new situation each week and solve it by the end of the hour. It is the format of the original series and later 20th century spinoffs like Star Trek: The Next Generation, but differs from the serialized storytelling of more recent programs like Discovery and Goldsman’s own Star Trek: Picard, in which a season-long problem is generally unresolved until the finale.

---

Read Also: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds First Reviews: ‘Smart, Addictive, and Flat Out Fun’

---

The change back to the older format offers a few dividends, like a heightened catharsis at the close of each story. It also creates a situation in which one episode can be harder edged while the next veers closer to comedy.

“Think of the original series; you could go from fantasy, to straight horror, to sort of historical recreation, to hard sci-fi, comedy,” Goldsman explained. “One of the joys of going back to episodic was to be able to play those scales and to be able to jump from a Hunt for Red October–like thriller to [an episode with] a ‘Shore Leave‘–like nature.”

Of course, being a modern series, character arcs, emotional beats, and other ideas will carry over from week to week, and “how [the episodes] are positioned in relation to each other also has a kind of overall effect that hopefully is gratifying,” according to Goldsman.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

“We’ve really been pushing the envelope in terms of style and genre,” Mount added. “[We’re] really encouraging our directors to come in with their own sense of vision, not just in terms of their lenses or the shots, but really, ‘What’s something you’ve never seen on Star Trek that you want to see?’” The results lead to a new way of presenting Trek stories.

The format also allows Strange New Worlds to lean heavily into Trek’s sense of fun and camaraderie. Or, as Goldsman put it, “[what] we felt was fun and connection and belonging and being transported to this other world once a week.” The sensation will be different for those used to the mode and pace of Discovery or Picard, but to use a Vulcan-ism, it will be “agreeable.”

Cultivating the sense of fun aboard ship is Pike himself. Quick-witted, empathetic, and warm even to a cadet, he leads via consensus building and collaboration. He also hosts regular dinner parties to promote familiarity and respects a wide array of opinions. That openness also leads to an amount of candor aboard ship that may surprise even the most devoted Trekkie.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

“It’s the way Pike runs his Enterprise,” Rebecca Romijn, who plays Number One, said. “It might not be like that on the other ships.”

For her part, Romijn considers the opportunity to define the character beyond the original Star Trek pilot (and some Trek novels) as a “slightly” daunting task. Although a veteran of the X-Men franchise, where she learned of fan expectations, she stills notes there is a pressure of sorts to “getting it right.”

“The Star Trek fans are very protective of these characters and the franchise, and we know it. I feel the same way. I think we all feel the same way,” she added. But in Number One’s case, it comes with a certain opportunity as well.

“She only got 14 minutes of screen time [in the original pilot]. We only saw her doing the tasks at hand. We didn’t know her as an actual character,” she explained. Strange New Worlds offers a chance to for Romijn and the writing team to explore her with in more depth with, as it turns out, a little help from the Trek novels — one of which gave the character her now-canon first name: “Una.”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Goldsman noted choices about Number One’s background and a particular situation Spock (Ethan Peck) finds himself in early on were not intentionally pulled from the novels, but happened as development “rubbed up against” Trek’s long publishing history.

“An extrapolation of the original series can create overlap,” he explained. “We were imagining things based on the original show and so many of these wonderful novelists were doing the same.”

Of course, some of the choices made on Strange New Worlds may align with the novels, but still create some differing opinion among the fanbase. “I only hope that a lot of fans would be really pleased and satisfied with the amount of love and care we’ve put into this show and that we’ll convert new fans and create new Trekkies,” Peck said when asked about some of the potentially controversial story points viewers will soon see.

Perhaps less controversial though, will be his portrayal of Spock. Building from his time on Discovery, the character will be decidedly more in tune with his emotions than Nimoy’s depiction of him in the original series. Peck even argued that greater sense of balance viewers saw in the later season 2 episodes of Discovery and will see on Strange New Worlds speaks to a younger Spock who doesn’t “know how to be as closed off as he will become.” As he further explained, “I think he’s discovering how human to be or how Vulcan to be and I have the joy of exploring that every day with the scenes that are written for me.”

---

(Photo by Paramount/Courtesy: Everett Collection)

It is a journey with the potential to run parallel to Nimoy’s own discovery of the character, who evolved from a fiery alien spotted smiling in the original pilot to the paradigm of logic and emotional suppression seen through much of the original series (although we’ll note he also smiles a mere minute into the second Trek pilot, too).

One thing Peck will carry over from Nimoy, though, is his peculiar pronunciation of “sensors.” With the emphasis on the second vowel, it was a fairly accepted way to say the word in the 1960s — fellow Star Trek original series star DeForest Kelley also said it with the long “o” — but as it became more common, the stress became less pronounced. Over on Star Trek: Lower Decks, it’s even become a joke as only Vulcans say it the Nimoy way.

“The pronunciation of ‘sensors’ never becomes second nature,” Peck admitted. “[But I] bring in that quality that was established by Nimoy. I always enjoy finding those moments and I’ll never stop doing it.”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Beyond the main three from the pilot, Strange New Worlds also feature a handful of other established Trek characters and a handful of new additions who also lean into the show’s sense of fun. Celia Rose Gooding, for example, offers a new take on Nyota Uhura. Viewers quickly learn she is unsure if Starfleet is right for her.

“Because Star Trek takes place in space you never really question it — ‘Is this where everybody wanted to end up?’” she said of the character’s new starting point. And though Trekkies know her eventual destiny, Gooding still enjoyed playing up her doubts. “I think that is very human, and I think that gives an opportunity for the audience to place themselves into this character and say, ‘I don’t know how I would feel standing on the surface of a comet or trying to save lives of aliens who I don’t know how to communicate with half of the time.’”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Melissa Navia, meanwhile, plays helmsman Lt. Erica Ortegas; a new character ready to join the ranks with Hikara Sulu as one Trek’s great pilots in terms of ability. Also like Sulu, she exudes an effortless cool. “That come from an organic space,” she said of the way the writers envisioned her. “And so everything feels like nothing’s forced.” We suspect the character will quickly become an icon and when we said as much, Navia was quick to say she “just wants to truly honor what Star Trek is” with the character.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Down in Sickbay, a pair of familiar characters take charge. Dr. M’Benga (Booker Bradshaw) appeared in two episodes of the original series while Nurse Christine Chapel (Barrett’s second role in the program) was a recurring presence throughout its three seasons. In Strange New Worlds, the pair are 10-or-so years younger and played by Babs Olusanmokun and Jess Bush, respectively. In each case, coming to the characters offered something different. For Bush, it was to use “the candor and the wit and the humor” Barrett brought to the role and to emphasize Chapel’s “dedication to the people that she cares about in her job.” Also, from the episodes we’ve seen, there is a heightened sense of youth to the character that will prove interesting considering subsequent developments.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Olusanmokun, meanwhile, saw it more as a “newer beginning” with a character who was far less established.

“I think it’s my privilege now and challenge now to be able to go forward and create something and bring more life [to it] because of the opportunity I get to play him more,” he said. In a switch from the original series’ curmudgeonly doctor, M’Benga exudes warmth and empathy, which Olusanmokun said was “a beautiful part of it for me.”

But for all the episodic-ness and bonhomie on the Enterprise, Strange New Worlds does come with at least one recurring idea: Captain Pike knows his fate. According to Mount, Pike’s great conflict in that regard is “figuring out what happens between now and then, and is the knowledge of that going to affect my ability to lead and protect hundreds of people that serve under me and trust me? And can I honestly serve with something that could turn out to be an existential handicap?”

Those questions are directly addressed in some of the episodes we saw and Goldsman told us they will hang over the first season even as Pike heads off to new battles, first contact situations, and the fun of exploration.

---

(Photo by Marni Grossman/Paramount+)

“We didn’t want to just skirt the issue and get on with the show,” Mount continued. “We wanted to make that a pivotal part of the development of the character in the show itself.”

Goldsman added, “Part of what I do believe in Star Trek storytelling is that there are fundamental conditions to being human that are not time specific — whether they be the idea of melancholy and depression or the idea of our wrestling with an understanding of destiny.”

And really, confronting the essential human issues is as key to Star Trek as Spock’s pronunciation of “sensors.”

98% Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season 1 (2022) premieres on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+.

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

According to Star Trek canon, Captain Christopher Pike helmed the USS Enterprise 10 years before James T. Kirk (William Shatner) took over. Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter in the unused Star Trek pilot episode, Sean Kenney in original series episode “The Menagerie,” and Bruce Greenwood in JJ Abram’s 2009 Star Trek feature film. It’s been over five decades since the original crew boldly went where no one had gone before and now, Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will explore Pike’s early adventures.

Stepping into the lead role is Anson Mount, who first portrayed Pike in season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. His storyline was integral to that season, culminating in a discovery that his character will fall victim to a fatal future event — a story detail directly linking Discovery (and now Strange New Worlds) to the “The Menagerie.” Showrunner Akiva Goldsman has confirmed the series will follow the classic episode structure of TOS, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.

Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck were introduced as Number One, first officer Una Chin-Riley and science officer Spock in Discovery and reprise their roles in Strange New Worlds. Joining them are Celia Rose Gooding as Caden Nyota Uhura, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga, Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas, and Bruce Horak as chief engineer Hemmer.

Here’s what critics are saying about season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

---

How does it fit in the Star Trek universe?

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

While existing within that canon, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” leverages audience familiarity in a manner that’s welcoming rather than suffocating. As the title implies, this is a loving throwback to the spirit of exploration and derring-do so intrinsic to the brand over the past six decades (right down to Mount reciting a version of the “Space, the final frontier” narration that both Shatner and Stewart had a go at in previous incarnations), while pointing toward a future full of possibilities. – Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

Although “Strange New Worlds” is a direct expansion of known Trek lore, the showrunners seem to have finally dropped the foolish twin pop philosophies of “We’re doing this for the fans” and “We’re reinventing everything.” They found an old recipe, and it still tastes good. – Witney Seibold, Slashfilm

Inevitably, some fans may bristle at Strange New Worlds’ brushes with continuity. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds must stick to canon and Pike’s fate, the show offers a contemporary vibe as fans get to visit new worlds and cultures. Given the point in the Star Trek timeline when Kirk takes over the Enterprise and when Pike gets disfigured, we should be able to get a few seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to see what develops. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

---

How is Anson Mount’s performance?

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

Mount’s Pike is one of the finest additions of the Paramount+ “Trek” era, sensitive and soulful where Kirk is swashbuckling. Mount has created a character who’s just as expressive when he isn’t talking as when he is. – Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire

In that vein, enough can’t be said about how effortlessly charming Anson Mount is as Pike. Conveying compassion, humor and resolve in equal measures, the “Hell on Wheels” star has always had great presence, but this role truly feels like — to borrow a phrase from 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” — his first, best destiny. More importantly, given that a tragic fate is very much in store for poor Pike, it makes the journey toward that end so much more heartrending. – Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

Pike is a leader in the truest sense of the word. Thoughtful, intelligent, decisive, and with the right touch of humor, Anson Mount deftly portrays a commander you’d put your life on the line for. Over the course of the season, Pike evolves into a deep, immensely likable and engaging character. His crew is also full of men and women with multidimensional layers. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine

Stepping into the vaguely dad-shaped space left by Greenwood in Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” Anson Mount offers up something surprisingly rare on TV these days: a charming, straightforward good guy. His affable presence is maybe not the best reason to produce yet another “Star Trek” prequel series — but it’s not the worst, either. – Zack Handlen, Variety

---

What about the rest of the cast?

(Photo by Marni Grossman/Paramount+)

​​Gooding wisely doesn’t set out to adopt any of Nichols’ mannerisms. Her Uhura is a young, wildly overachieving young woman who isn’t yet convinced that she’s destined for a career in Starfleet. It’s true that in the first five episodes made available to press, Uhura often seems like the kind of uber-wunderkind that historically dogs the franchise, and while the character does risk going Full Wesley™, the net effect is to convince us that this Uhura might not become the Uhura viewers know. If she can do anything, as she does here, then who knows if she’s still fated to end up rocking that signature earpiece? – Glen Weldon, NPR

​​Mr. Spock, who could be brusque and off-putting in Star Trek: Discovery, has evolved into the more enjoyable and astute version of the character viewers came to love in The Original Series. Actor Ethan Peck has developed the role into the fascinating, logical, and reliable man viewers have been hoping for. When Spock says lines like, “I’m a Vulcan, I’m too honest by nature” and “I find the best way to diffuse tension is to apply rigorous logic,” it feels like something Mr. Spock would say, and Peck is phenomenal. Captain Pike’s Number One, first officer Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) shines as well, particularly when we learn more about her in the third episode. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine

But franchise newcomer Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien-Singh also gets to shine in the debut. Let’s face it: The idea behind the character sounded pretty dumb when she was announced. A descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh, as in The Wrath of Khan, working on the Enterprise? But Chong is great here, hinting at her genetically tangled past and also showing the guys a thing or two when they’re planet-side on their away mission. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

Helmsman Ortegas (Melissa Navia) summons the brash swagger of the original Trek, while Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) honors the tradition of prickly-yet-lovable know-it-alls. – Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

---

How is the show’s production value?

(Photo by Marni Grossman/Paramount+)

Contemporary visual effects (and a Paramount+ budget) have given the Enterprise a facelift. Its hull is now studded with hundreds of teensy, warmly glowing windows, its bridge is more sleek and interactive, its sickbay more Apple-store-chic, and its crew cabins far, far more lux than you remember. – Glen Weldon, NPR

The production values on “Strange New Worlds” are the most lush of any of the Paramount+ shows: the reimagined Enterprise feels somehow totally contemporary yet informed by the pop art ’60s version. This isn’t a vision of the Enterprise designed to supplant the ’60s Enterprise, which is rather what the new ship in the J.J. Abrams movies felt like, when you could actually see it through all those lens flares. This one feels like it complements the original version, like this show could lead right into “The Original Series.” – Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire

We’ve returned to the color-TV-just-happened costume palette, which means Mount dresses in heinous long-sleeve yellow and the occasional green wraparound tunic. I do love that tunic, but the production design is generally a bit shiny-bland. I miss the chunky warmth of the ’90s Trek bridges, a gray-brown all-sofa-everywhere austerity precisely evoked on Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville (which returns this summer on Hulu). – Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

It also gives the filmmakers a chance to really immerse audiences in this universe, through some truly breathtaking production design. Employing environments either on board the Enterprise or elsewhere, Jonathan Lee grounds the drama, which in turn lends gravitas to everything else. As this series progresses and a number of escalating anomalies continue to plague this intrepid crew, that sense of reality only grows stronger. – Martin Carr, We Got This Covered

---

Does the classic episode structure work?

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

By and large, this approach works. While it lacks “Discovery’s” ambition, “Strange New Worlds” also avoids that show’s struggles with serialization and scope, as each episode limits its focus to the story at hand. The result is as straightforward and direct as the show’s leading man, and nearly as likable. There’s no strain here, and while the more episodic style may be old-fashioned, it’s refreshing to watch something that isn’t pretending to be a 10-hour movie. – Zack Handlen, Variety

It doesn’t particularly care about the version of the Enterprise or its crew you may or may not be holding in your head, and heart. It simply wants to tell Trek stories the way they used to be told — one space battle, one diplomatic summit, one alien virus, one spatial anomaly, one transporter accident at a time. – Glen Weldon, NPR

So whereas the Discoveries and Picards of the world are focused on season-long Big Bad main arcs, Strange New Worlds is focusing on new stories each week, but also telling its characters’ stories over the long haul. Those are the season-long arcs, and man, does it really work in the first five. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

---

Any Final Thoughts?

(Photo by James Dimmock/Paramount+)

It’s not mere nostalgia that’s powering Strange New Worlds’ warp core, it’s also the simplicity of its premise: The Enterprise Before Kirk. – Glen Weldon, NPR

Smart, addictive and flat out fun, Strange New Worlds is the best Star Trek series since The Next Generation and acts as a faithful love letter to the original. Old fan or new, this is a trek you’ll certainly want to take. – Terry Terrones, Paste Magazine

Funny, inspiring, and kind of amazing, Strange New Worlds is, so far, the best new Trek in years. – Scott Collura, IGN Movies

“Strange New Worlds” is, quite simply, the best “Star Trek” show in decades. – Witney Seibold, Slashfilm

98% Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season 1 (2022) premieres on Thursday, May 5, on Paramount+.

---

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

(Photo by Sarah Coulter/Paramount+)

Best Paramount+ Shows Ranked by Tomatometer

Updated January 3, 2022

The newest streaming service in town is Paramount+, but the ViacomCBS-owned platform is filled with old favorites, even on launch day. Because the company isn’t starting from scratch, having basically just revamped existing streaming service CBS All Access. All of the CBS All Access originals now live in their new Paramount+ home. Those include critically acclaimed shows like The Good Fight and the latest Star Trek series Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks — in fact, the entire Star Trek universe’s new home is on Paramount+ — plus new versions of old favorites from ViacomCBS brands like MTV, Nickelodeon, CBS, and more.

Series in the works include TV versions of Flashdance, Love Story, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Parallax View; spinoffs of Paramount Network hit Yellowstone; the long-in-the-works Halo TV series (which moves from Showtime to the streaming service); the final season of Younger; new versions of reality hits including Road Rules, Unplugged, Behind the Music, a Real World original cast reunion, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, an all-star season of The Challenge, Ink Master, and more; revivals of Frasier, Criminal Minds, Inside Amy Schumer, The Game, iCarly, and Reno 911!; plus many more original scripted, documentary and reality series.

Basically, if it’s a show from a ViacomCBS-owned brand that doesn’t have an existing streaming distribution deal elsewhere, you’re probably going to be able to find it on Paramount+ before too long.

And that doesn’t even touch on the film content headed to the streamer, including movie continuations of Comedy Central sitcom Workaholics and MTV’s seminal animated series Beavis & Butt-head, plus theatrically released films that will hit Paramount+ within 30-45 days of their release date like Mission: Impossible 7. Thanks to a new deal with EPIX, thousands of movie titles will be available starting in late spring — including the James Bond and Hunger Games franchises. And Paramount+ is also planning on producing movies exclusively for the streaming service, including new versions of Paranormal Activity and Pet Sematary.

To help you plan your Paramount+ viewing experience, we’ve put together a guide to all the Paramount+ originals, including all the existing shows that are getting revived or rebooted on the new streaming service. To start, we’ve included all of the available titles we could, ranked by Tomatometer (and then listed alphabetically after that). As more titles join the list, we’ll revise the list to only those Paramount+ series with enough reviews to have generated a score for the title.

Recently Added: 1883

Thumbnail image: Nickelodeon/Paramount+

---

Read More:

• The Best Netflix Shows to Watch Right Now
• Best Netflix Movies to Watch Right Now
• The Best Disney+ Shows and Original Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
• The Best Shows on Amazon Prime — and Original Movies
• The Best Apple TV+ Shows and Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
• The Best Hulu Shows to Binge-Watch Now
• The Best HBO Series of All Time Ranked
• See every cancelled TV show and renewed series as they’re announced
• Check out the latest TV premiere dates

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

ViacomCBS busted out its Paramount+ goodies like a content piñata during the company’s investor day this week: more Avatar, a Halo series update, Star Trek expansion, Rugrats revival and more top news in streaming and TV.

---

TOP STORY

Fresh Avatar Series Part of a Slew of New Plans For Paramount and Paramount+, Including Rebooted Frasier and Criminal Minds, Halo Series, and Series Adaptations of The Italian Job and Fatal Attraction

(Photo by Nickelodeon)

ViacomCBS delivered great news to Avatar: The Last Airbender fans this week: Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios was created to launch new animated TV series and movies in the franchise, to air on Nick, in theaters, and on Paramount+, the company announced during its investor day on Wednesday.

The new studio will be run by Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who left Netflix’s live-action Avatar movie last summer. Their first project for Avatar Studios is an animated Last Airbender theatrical movie that will begin production before the end of this year.

In other Paramount+ news as ViacomCBS prepares to debut its rebranded streaming service on March 4:

• Kelsey Grammer has signed on for a reboot of his 1993-2004 Emmy-winning NBC comedy Frasier, in which he’ll play Dr. Frasier Crane, the psychiatrist who first debuted on Cheers. The series, which has so far has not added any of Grammer’s original co-stars, is scheduled to debut in 2022 on Paramount+.

• CBS hit Criminal Minds wrapped up its 15-season run in 2020, but Paramount+ is ready to bring it back. No specific cast members have yet been announced, but showrunner Erica Messer will resume that role for the streaming reboot.

• Pablo Schreiber is starring as Master Chief, with Bokeem Woodbine and Natascha McElhone co-starring, in the Halo TV series that is moving from Showtime, another Viacom company, to Paramount+.

---

Related: “Everything We Know About the Halo TV Series“

---

• Jeremy Renner will star in Mayor of Kingstown, from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. The drama, originally set at Paramount Network but moved to Paramount+, revolves around the McLusky family, the most powerful in a small Michigan town. Antoine Fuqua is an executive producer, as is Renner and Sheridan.

---

• Also on tap at Paramount+ from Sheridan is a Yellowstone prequel set in the 1880s; a Yellowstone spin-off called 6666, about a Texas ranch that “is synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world, and ultimately where world class cowboys are born and made”; and Land Man, a drama about the cowboys and billionaires in the West Texas oil business.

• Paramount is raiding its movie library as fodder for Paramount+ TV series, including adaptations of Love Story, Fatal Attraction, The Italian Job, Flashdance, and Parallax View.

---

• The Star Trek universe will live at Paramount+, including the animated kids series Star Trek: Prodigy (originally set up at Nickelodeon) about a group of alien kids living on an abandoned Starfleet ship. All other current Trek series will also call Paramount+ home: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Brave New Worlds, the upcoming prequel series with Anson Mount as pre-Kirk Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike.

• The seventh, and final, season of Younger will premiere on Paramount+.

• MTV and VH1 will have a presence on Paramount+ with rebooted MTV Unplugged, Yo! MTV Raps, and Behind the Music, plus a reality show from Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and his mom, Virginia Hanlon, about rockers and the moms who raised them.

• Queen of the Universe, a reality competition from RuPaul’s Drag Race producers World of Wonder, features drag queens from all around the world. Other reality shows include the reunion of the original cast of The Real World in The Real World: Homecoming: New York; a new version of Real World spin-off Road Rules; and The Challenge: All-Stars, with OG Real World and Road Rules cast members competing to win $500,000.

---

• And Rugrats is returning. The ’toon, which aired on Nickelodeon for nine seasons, will reboot on Paramount+ with the original cast returning, including The Simpsons star Nancy Cartwright (Chuckie), E.G. Daily (Tommy), Cheryl Chase (Angelica), Cree Summer (Susie), and Kath Soucie (Phil and Lil).

---

Also Read: “Marvel’s Kevin Feige on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Which MCU Shows Could Get Second Seasons“

---

Julia Roberts, Sean Penn Starring in Watergate Drama at Starz

(Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for CORE Gala)

Updated with Star Trek Day panel video links and Star Trek: Discovery season 3 trailer.

The Star Trek universe announced big plans for Star Trek Day. In other major developments, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Stephen King’s The Stand release first-look trailers and announce premiere dates, a Spider-Verse series is reportedly in the works, Netflix scored a deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, while the Game of Thrones creators have paired with The Terror: Infamy’s showrunner to adapt sci-fi novel series The Three-Body Problem, Will Smith and his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air castmates are set to reunite, and much more. Read on for the biggest stories in TV and streaming from the past week.

---

TOP STORY

Star Trek Day to Celebrate Nine Star Trek Series, Including Upcoming Strange New Worlds

(Photo by Michael Gibson/CBS)

Trekkies, unite! CBS is planning some major activities for a gigantic virtual Star Trek Day celebration on Tuesday, September 8 that includes free virtual panels with casts and crew from nine different Star Trek series — including the newest addition to the Universe, Discovery spinoff Strange New Worlds. The new series stars Anson Mount as U.S.S Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number 1, and Ethan Peck as a young Spock, roles the trio debuted in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 and revisited for Star Trek: Short Treks episode “Q&A” (pictured above).

Throughout the day, which will be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton, CBS All Access will make major Star Trek announcements and debut new footage.

The panels, which will run from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET/noon to 3:30 p.m. PT, include:

• Star Trek: Discovery (with stars Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala and co-showrunners and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (with stars Mount, Romijn, and Peck; executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers; and co-executive producers Akela Cooper and Davy Perez) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: Enterprise (with stars Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, and Connor Trinneer) – watch the panel now.
•  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (with stars Terry Farrell, Alexander Siddig, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Cirroc Lofton, and executive producer Ira Steven Behr) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: The Original Series (with star George Takei and the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks (with voice cast Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero and series creator, showrunner and executive producer Mike McMahan) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: Voyager (with stars Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Robert MNeill, Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, and Ethan Phillips) – watch the panel now.
• Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation (with stars Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes) – watch the panel now.

Keeping in line with creator Gene Roddenberry’s mission of inclusion, CBS All Access is donating $1 to social justice charities for every person who tweets the hashtag #StarTrekUnitedGives. Recipients include the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

For fans based in the U.S., midnight PT will mark the beginning of a marathon of episodes from eight different Star Trek series — it’ll pause during the panels, then resume after — on both CBS All Access and for free online at StarTrek.com/Day.

Other highlights include a flash sale for merch, Star Trek-themed emojis, a Geeks Who Drink Star Trek pub quiz on Twitch at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, and a social campaign encouraging fans to post stories about what Star Trek means to them (which will then be featured on official Star Trek platforms).

---

(Photo by Jake Akita/Phil Sharp/courtesy CBS All Access)

Additionally, CBS All Access revealed this week that season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery will introduce the franchise’s first non-binary and transgender characters.

From the official release: “Adira, played by Blu del Barrio (pictured above right), is highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years. They will find a new home on the U.S.S. Discovery and form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). The first transgender character is Gray, played by Ian Alexander (pictured above left). Gray is empathetic, warm and eager to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a Trill host, but he will have to adapt when his life takes an unexpected turn.”

Co-showrunner Michelle Paradise noted that she and the writers have been working with both actors and GLAAD to make sure the characters are fully, compassionately, and responsibly portrayed. The 13-episode season 3 premieres Thursday, October 15 on CBS All Access.

---

Spider-Verse May Get Silk Live-Action Series 

Korean-American Marvel character Cindy Moon (aka Silk) may be next to get a live-action series, Variety reported this week. The title is reportedly being developed by Sony Pictures Television and Phil Lord and Chris Miller — the duo produced 2018 Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse  — with Lauren Moon (Atypical) in talks to write. Peter Parker’s classmate, Cindy also develops superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider.

---

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Reunion Special

(Photo by Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection)

---

All Mariah Carey Wants Is a Christmas Special at Apple TV+

(Photo by Dennis Leupold)

Mariah Carey is already planning for Christmas — the Queen of the Christmas song is getting her own holiday special on Apple TV+. Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special will hit the streaming service in time for the holiday season, and will feature the “All I Want For Christmas Is You” singer and a “star-studded lineup of surprise guest appearances in a magical holiday journey to enliven the Christmas spirit around the world. The innovative special will combine music, dancing and animation driven by a universally heartwarming story that brings the world together.”

---

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Sign Royally Huge Netflix Deal

(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Forget The Crown, now Netflix has the real deal: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have signed a multi-year production deal that will see the royals produce films (scripted and documentary features) and series (scripted, docuseries, and children’s programming) for the streaming service.

“Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement on Wednesday. “We are pleased to work with Ted [Sarandos] and the team at Netflix whose unprecedented reach will help us share impactful content that unlocks action.”

Said Netflix CEO Sarandos, “We’re incredibly proud they have chosen Netflix as their creative home — and are excited about telling stories with them that can help build resilience and increase understanding for audiences everywhere.”

The Duke and Duchess follow in the footsteps of Barack and Michelle Obama, who inked a deal with Netflix in 2018. The royal news was first reported by the New York Times.

---

New Trailers: The Haunting of Bly Manor First Look

Netflix’s highly anticipated followup to The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, got its first trailer this week. The series, which isn’t a second season but rather an entirely new show, features much of the same cast and is loosely based on Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw. The series launches on Friday, October 9.

More trailers and teasers released this week:

• CBS All Access released a teaser for Stephen King miniseries The Stand, which is set to premiere December 17. (Read also: “Everything We Know About Stephen King’s The Stand.“)
• The CW’s Arrowverse looks like it’s going for a rebranding with the debut of the first teaser for Superman and Lois — it’s now “The CWverse.”
• Luca Guadagnino’s new HBO series, We Are Who We Are, premieres September 14.
• A new teaser for The Walking Dead: World Beyond reveals more about the two-season limited series spinoff, which premieres October 4 on AMC.
• HBO also debuted the first trailer for season 2 of His Dark Materials, which premieres in November.
• Catch a glimpse of Kit Harington in this trailer for season 2 of Criminal: UK, which premieres September 16 on Netflix.

For all the latest TV and streaming trailers, subscribe to the Rotten Tomatoes TV YouTube channel.

---

Casting: Tiger King, Cheer, and Selling Sunset Stars Head to DWTS

(Photo by Netflix)

The cast of ABC’s pandemic edition of Dancing With the Stars reads like a Mad Libs of TV personalities: Anne Heche, Disney’s Skai Jackson, Tiger King‘s Carole Baskin, Cheer‘s Monica Adama, The Bachelorette’s Kaitlyn Bristowe, Catfish‘s Nev Schulman, The Real‘s Jeannie Mai, Desperate Housewives’ Jesse Metcalfe, One Day at a Time’s Justina Machado, Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause, Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean, figure skater Johnny Weir, rapper Nelly, football player Vernon Davis, and basketball player Charles Oakley will all compete for the mirrorball trophy.

Gina Torres has joined the cast of Fox’s 911: Lone Star, playing paramedic captain Tommy Vega, who had retired from the job to raise her twin daughters until COVID-19 destroyed her husband’s restaurant and pushed her back into the workforce.

Ciera Payton will play Wendy Williams in Lifetime’s biopic about the talk show host, produced by Williams herself and debuting in 2021.

---

Production & Development: Game of Thrones Creators Sign On for Major Netflix Sci-Fi Adaptation

(Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

Netflix is betting on Chinese author Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem and its two sequels as a new, expansive sci-fi hit: The streaming service announced that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with The Terror: Infamy’s Alexander Woo, will write and executive produce an English-language series that adapts all three books of the Hugo Award-winning series. Other EPs include Rian Johnson and producing partner Ram Bergman, and author Cixin is on board as a consulting producer, as is Ken Liu, who wrote the English translation for The Three-Body Problem and Death’s End. Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Rosamund Pike’s Primitive Streak are also involved.

In other development news, Starz has greenlit a third Power spinoff, this time focusing on Joseph Sikora’s Tommy Egan as he leaves New York.

Although it’s only been three years since Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars ended, Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is developing a new take on the series with a new story and new characters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there’s no network home yet but the project is targeted for HBO Max.

And Fox is developing an animated comedy spinoff of The X-Files. According to TVLine, The X-Files: Albuquerque will not revolve around Scully and Mulder, but rather “an office full of misfit agents who investigate X-Files cases too wacky, ridiculous or downright dopey for Mulder and Scully to bother with. They’re essentially the X-Files’ B-team.”

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

The summer heat is reaching new heights this month, the coronavirus pandemic continues affecting film and television production around the country, and the selection of returning series to binge is admittedly slim. So we are bringing you something a little different with this month’s guide by including an upcoming streaming film and the star’s previous TV projects you’ll want to catch up on. Find our recommendations below for six series to binge in August.

---

The Rain () - - (Netflix)

What it is: This post-apocalyptic Danish thriller from creators Jannik Tai Mosholt, Esben Toft Jacobsen, and Christian Potalivo takes place six years after the modern world has succumbed to a fatal virus that’s transmitted through toxic, infected rain. Siblings Simone and Rasmus survived against all odds while holed up in a bunker, and they reenter the world in search of their scientist father to find the rain has killed nearly all signs of human life in their native Scandinavia. They’re soon joined by another young group of survivors who face the world’s devastation and dangers together.

Why you should watch it: This slow-burning, character-driven drama has enough sci-fi elements and reality-based thrills to keep any fan of the admittedly well-worn dystopian genre entertained for a quick binge. Season 3 premieres August 6 on Netflix.

Where to watch: Netflix

Commitment: Approx. 10.5 hours (for the first two seasons)

---

Star Trek: The Next Generation () 92% (CBS All Access)

What it is: As the Star Trek universe adds a new series with this month’s Star Trek: Lower Decks, we’re recommending you revisit The Next Generation for a summer binge. TNG sets the stage for this animated comedy series’ fantastical world, which follows four “heroes” from the support crew on Starfleet’s U.S.S. Cerritos, the fleet’s least important ship. The series also borrows its name from TNG episode, “Lower Decks.” If you want more Star Trek options, check out our list of “Star Trek TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer” to find one that’s right for you. 

Why you should watch it: While the new series should be accessible to Trekkies, experts, and newbies alike, a binge of TNG will give you the info you need to ID the Lower Decks’ Easter eggs, share in the Trek humor, and more. Season 1 premieres August 6 on CBS All Access.

Where to watch: Amazon, CBS All Access, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Hulu, Microsoft, Netflix, Vudu

Commitment: Approx. 132 hours (for all seven seasons)

---

Freaks and Geeks () 100% (NBC)

Undeclared () 93% (Fox)

What it is: This one is for all the Seth Rogen lovers out there. Today, he is a bankable star thanks to timeless teen and stoner comedy classics like Knocked Up, Superbad, and Pineapple Express — and his latest, An American Pickle, is quite literally timeless due to its time-jumping immigrant premise. But some may forget that he pretty much grew up on our screens at the top of the millennium with Judd Apatow’s short-lived but beloved network comedies, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

Why you should watch it: Anyone who’s ever felt like an adrift outsider will likely see themselves in any number of the messy-but-lovable characters across these two series. If you’re looking for a classic binge that’ll remind you just why Rogen is a huge star today, this is a great place to start before An American Pickle premieres on HBO Max on August 6.

Where to watch it: A little twist with these titles: They’re only available to purchase on DVD, so you’re going to have to really commit. Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are available to order from Amazon.com. (Step 1: Do you even have a DVD player?)

Commitment: Approx. 13 hours for Freaks and Geeks and approx. 6.5 hours for Undeclared.

---

Endeavour () 90% (PBS)

What it is: As a prequel series to the long-running Inspector Morse, this Russell Lewis–created, Shaun Evans–starring series follows our hero Endeavour Morse through his early career as a detective constable through to his promotion as a detective sergeant with the Oxford City Police.

Why you should watch it: This lush period drama depicting 1960s-era Oxford and the surrounding area is grounded first and foremost from a charismatic Evans, but its twists and turns also help make the series endlessly watchable for lovers of the PBS Masterpiece cloth. Season 7 premieres August 9 on PBS.

Where to watch it: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Microsoft, Vudu

Commitment: Approx. 40 hours (for the first six seasons)

---

Lucifer () 87% (Netflix)

What it is: Most people escape their locale to vacation where it’s warm, but where do you vacation when your home is in Hell? Los Angeles, apparently. That’s where our titular antihero Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) sets his sights, at least, after resigning his post as ruler of the underworld to spice up his life. Once in L.A., he opens up a nightclub and stumbles into becoming a civilian consultant for the LAPD.

Why you should watch it: Based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg, Lucifer Morningstar is a protagonist like we haven’t seen before. Ruler of Hell, sure, but also charismatic as hell (charming, witty, and handsome), proving himself to be the perfect right-hand man for homicide detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German). (Over the span of the series, their beguiling relationship is one of the reasons to stick around, too.) Lucifer was cancelled by Fox in 2018, but revived by Netflix, which will premiere its fifth season on August 21.

Where to watch: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Hulu, Microsoft, Netflix, Vudu

Commitment: Approx. 47 hours (for the first four seasons)

(Photo by Amazon Prime Video)

2020 Winter TV Scorecard

Updated as of March 22, 2020

We’ve tracked the best (and worst) cold-weather TV and streaming offerings since mid-December, gathering a list of all the premieres this season – series, miniseries, and TV movies across cable, broadcast, and streaming – and ranked them by Tomatometer. And now it’s time to say goodbye. We’ve closed down the list as of March 19, the last day of winter.

The final list of 110 titles includes every eligible new TV season or streaming movie that premiered since December 13, with highlights like The Witcher on Netflix, AMC’s Better Call Saul, The Expanse on Amazon Prime Video, Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access, the final season of Schitt’s Creek on Pop, Freeform’s Party of Five, HBO’s The New Pope, 9-1-1: Lone Star on Fox, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens on Comedy Central, Katy Keene on The CW, Briarpatch on USA Network, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet on Apple TV+, the final season of Homeland on Showtime, High Fidelity on Hulu, Outlander on Starz, Togo on Disney+, and more!

To be included, each TV show on the list must have received at least 10 critic reviews, while TV movies had to have at least 20 reviews. So if you’re wondering why your favorite show or TV movie isn’t on here, it likely just doesn’t yet have enough reviews to qualify under our criteria. And remember: a Certified Fresh badge generally means that a show or film has earned the respect of  the majority of reviewers weighing in (at least 20 for a TV season and 40 for films), including some of the industry’s top critics.

Just added: Visible: Out on Television (miniseries), Queen Sono: season 1, Brockmire: season 4, Motherland: Fort Salem: season 1, Feel Good: season 1

* Due to a technical issue, the score for season 5 of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow won’t show up in this view. It stands at 99% with 13 season-level reviews, as well as episode-level reviews with scores that also count toward its season score.

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

It’s been almost two decades since Jean-Luc Picard has commanded the bridge and our screens, and since legendary actor Patrick Stewart last played the storied Starfleet admiral. The years, Stewart says, have changed them both. That growth is central to the newest CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard, which finds the titular commander in a very different place to when we last saw him – older, wiser, out of the game, and about to be drawn back in.

Rotten Tomatoes sat down with Stewart to find out what brought him back to the Star Trek franchise and why he feels such a personal connection with the man who’s become his most iconic role. Plus, we talk to Star Trek newcomers Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Santiago Cabrera, Evan Evagora, and Michelle Hurd, about working with the star and joining the Star Trek universe. Franchise veterans Jeri Ryan, Jonathan Del Arco, and Marina Sirtis reveal what it was like to return. Finally, the creatives behind the series – Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, Heather Kadin, and Akiva Goldsman —detail how the project came to be and how they convinced Stewart to finally sign on.

Bringing back Patrick Stewart to his iconic role as former captain and now retired admiral Jean-Luc Picard was no easy feat, Star Trek: Picard producers Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, and Heather Kadin told Rotten Tomatoes recently. The classically-trained actor adamantly and very publicly had no interest in rehashing the beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation character.

“It was wildly public that he was not interested in ever coming back ever, ever, ever,” Goldman related. “But we felt that if we went and sat with him, he would come back. And we went and sat with him, and he said, ‘No.'”

But they sent him a 35-page script by Chabon anyway.

“None of which is in the show,” Goldsman revealed.

Series showrunner Chabon added: “None of that. It was a completely different story. But what it shared with what we ended up making was a perspective on the character of Jean-Luc Picard that was serious, and mature, and about a man who is at a later stage of his life, reckoning with his past, and the things that he’s done and things he hasn’t done, and trying to decide what’s next for him. We were just trying to show Patrick: ‘You can trust us. We get it. We get that you don’t want to come back and be on the bridge of the Enterprise and have the crew and all that. You want to do something different. Here’s something different.'”

Evidently, the work of the Chabon — author of Wonder Boys, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Moonglow, and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay — held sway.

---

Star Trek newcomers joining Stewart include Isa Briones as the mysterious Dahj, Michelle Hurd as former Starfleet Officer Raffi Musiker, Alison Pill as Dr. Agnes Jurati, Harry Treadaway as Narek, Evan Evagora as Elnor,  and Santiago Cabrera as pilot Chris Rios. Star Trek vets returning: Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Brent Spiner reprises his role as Data, Marina Sirtis returns as Deanna Troi, Jonathan Frakes is William Riker and again steps behind the camera to direct, and Jonathan Del Arco returns as Hugh, while Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan appears as Seven of Nine.

Season 1 has just taken flight on CBS All Access and quickly scored a Certified Fresh designation based on reviews. Critics have been given a look at three episodes of the series. Here’s what they’re saying about Star Trek: Picard.

---

DOES IT HONOR THE FRANCHISE?

(Photo by Netflix)

So unlike any other Trek property and deeply ensconced in the mythology of Gene Roddenberry’s creation which makes it one of the most distinct Star Trek stories ever to be told on screen. —Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Emporium

Extending a fiercely loved chapter in the “Star Trek” mythology means a director, practically speaking, cannot win with everyone…These first three episodes have been shrewdly tailored to fit Picard’s elder-statesman status, now that he’s a forcibly retired lion in winter, forced by his conscience and sense of duty to take on an authorized, this-time-it’s-personal mission. —Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Despite the cameos and Easter eggs, Picard never feels like nostalgia for its own sake. The creative team… have clearly given a lot of thought to the idea of an elderly Picard. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

Thankfully for “Trek” devotees, casual fans and curious subscribers alike, “Picard” is a delight. —Kelly Lawler, USA Today

Regret is a powerful motivator, and Jean-Luc’s list of regrets is nearly as long as his list of accomplishments, but Picard is more opening salvo than it is a requiem for a starship captain. —Danette Chavez, AV Club

Picard isn’t above moments of nostalgia (one scene in particular is packed with Easter eggs) but it also features a firm commitment to moving the franchise forward not just in time, but in what kind of stories Trek is capable of telling. —Liz Shannon Miller, Paste Magazine

“A bold and exciting addition to the franchise, featuring a compelling central mystery that will undoubtedly keep you gripped each week.” —Nicola Austin, We Have a Hulk

---

DOES PATRICK STEWART DELIVER?

(Photo by Netflix)

It’s a freight train performance from one of our great Shakespearean actors… There are moments you’re not quite sure if it’s Star Trek you’re watching or a high concept take on King Lear. —Ed Power, Daily Telegraph (UK)

It gives me no joy to say this, but: Stewart gave a more interesting performance in 2019’s Charlie’s Angels. —Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

Stewart is as charming and naturally charismatic as ever, but the general level of the performances around him is significantly higher. —Mike Hale, New York Times

[Stewart] has a unique ability to dial into his roles without completely disappearing, carrying the audience’s earned investment from role to role, whether he’s suffering through an awkward trip to the toilet or sipping tea among the stars. —Ben Travers, indieWire

The cast is marvelous, starting with Stewart, the finest actor ever to wear a Starfleet uniform. His aging and conflicted Picard is an endlessly intriguing revival of the character. He not only keeps you involved but also engaged. —Mark Dawidziak, Cleveland Plain Dealer

---

READ ALSO: Patrick Stewart and the Star Trek: Picard Crew on Why the World Needs Jean-Luc Now More Than Ever

---

HOW’S THE PRODUCTION OVERALL?

(Photo by Netflix)

Smart, well-crafted, layered – verging on over-layered. —Verne Gay, Newsday

It’s pretty shallow as a dramatic and thematic construct, but it is recognizably contemporary in its preoccupation with diversity and the mistake of excluding those whose traits and faiths are not fully understood. —John Doyle, Globe and Mail

One hopes that this fits-and-starts opener will give way to smoother storytelling to come, now that twenty years of narrative Band-Aids have been yanked off. —Andrew Todd, Birth.Movies.Death.

For their part, the writing team have found the perfect reason for Picard to get back to saving the galaxy. —Richard Edwards, SFX Magazine

Right now, Star Trek: Picard feels like a cadet pretending to be a captain, and only time will tell whether the series can … transform itself into something more exciting. —Andrew Bloom, The Spool

It takes a while to fully gel, and some fans might start to get impatient, but I’m happy to report that Picard does eventually set up an intriguing mission that’s worthy of its lead character. —Dave Nemetz, TV Line

---

WHAT ABOUT THE PACING?

(Photo by Netflix)

If there’s a problem with this gripping first episode it’s that it has to squeeze a lot of exposition into an hour in ways that sometimes threaten to crowd into space that could be devoted to exploring what the events it recounts mean to Picard. —Keith Phipps, New York Magazine/Vulture

But it moves within three hours to a place that promises as much excitement and movement as there already has been insight into its beaten-down protagonist, a show that suggests it’ll be worth sticking around for. —Daniel D’Addario, Variety

The viewers most likely to get impatient are also those most likely to be so happy simply to have Jean-Luc back on their screen that they’re willing to allow the show some indulgence. —Dan Fienberg, Hollywood Reporter

It’s clear right away though that Picard is also about so much more. It’s a TV series with the narrative mindset of a movie, and a Star Trek story that’s committed to shining a light into dark places that we haven’t explored before. —Adam Rosenberg, Mashable

While I wish it didn’t take three full episodes of heavy exposition to get the fabled Next Generation captain, later admiral, into space, the crew of rogue fellow travelers he assembles over the first few weeks is promising. —Matt Roush, TV Insider

---

FINAL VERDICT?

(Photo by Netflix)

Does anyone want a bitter and brutal Star Trek, full of murder-sorrow flashbacks, swoopy-kinetic fights, and all-encompassing paranoia? So much of Trek since 2009 strains to resemble the dumbest version of cool. You always sense the hand of some savvy-pitchman producer trying hard to make everything that was once endearingly nerdy look swole as hell. Picard has flashes of eccentricity, and any science-fiction show with a Miguel de Unamuno shoutout demands a quantum of hope. But for now, this is another disappointing Star Trek. Should we give it a chance? My advice: Disengage. —Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly

Anyone with an ounce of romance in them should feel that thrill. —Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

Against all odds Star Trek: Picard has started strong as both a loving tribute to something we once loved, and an artful exploration of something completely new. —Joshua Tyler, Giant Freakin Robot

One of the most highly anticipated new shows of the year… is simultaneously exciting and calmly beautiful, tantalizing and satisfying. —Diana Keng, TV Fanatic

Picard dares audiences to avoid wallowing in despair or nostalgia, and asks them to take action to build a world that’s even better than anyone could have imagined. —Samantha Nelson, Polygon

---

The news that Patrick Stewart had, after 19 years, agreed to return to the character of Jean-Luc Picard, the Star Trek role that made him a global celebrity, sparked loads of excitement among the fanbase. As the 79-year-old actor explained, the decision to head back into the universe that Gene Roddenberry created, relied on the caveat that Picard would boldly go where no Star Trek series has gone before.

“I don’t mean to give any offense to anyone, but I struggled a little bit with this issue,” Stewart told select members of the press at the official junket for Star Trek: Picard. “I was so obsessed with this idea that we must leave The Next Generation behind, that we must pull the curtain down on that and explore new things.”

---

In the latest Star Trek series on CBS All Access, a strong ensemble of Star Trek newcomers join Stewart; Isa Briones plays the mysterious Dahj, Michelle Hurd appears as former Starfleet Officer Raffi Musiker, Alison Pill plays Dr. Agnes Jurati, and Santiago Cabrera takes on the role of hot-headed pilot, Chris Rios.

“It is not the same world when we wrapped The Next Generation,” Stewart continued. “And I argued that I wanted that change and that world to be reflected insofar as it affected Jean-Luc and what had happened to him. The backstory of those 19 years is very, very important. But the great thing about it is — and I wasn’t prepared for this — I discovered I also lived through those 19 years; Patrick had lived through them. And I had changed. I’m different. I feel differently about the world that I’m living in, and in subtle ways.”

---

(Photo by Matt Kennedy/CBS)

As Star Trek fans know, there are multiple timelines that exist within this cinematic universe. That can add continuity confusion, depending on a viewer’s expectations with Star Trek: Picard. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman explained that the Romulan supernova that impacted the events of J.J. Abrams’ 2009 movie, which sparked a new timeline and universe separate from the original Star Trek series — this event is also referenced in Picard — is the catalyst for the vastly different timelines that exist across the Star Trek universe. That’s a lot to take in for new viewers, but the return of Stewart in his iconic role will most likely be a huge draw for people to tune in. Through all the strife Picard has been dealt since we last saw him, he’s still the highly-revered Starfleet admiral fans have grown to love and respect.

“We live in a continuity of a timeline,” Kurtzman said. “There’s emotional experiences that have certainly informed the show, but [Patrick Stewart] did not want to just play the part he had played in the same way. And I think you’ll find, as you go on that, fundamentally, Picard, as a character, has not changed. He’s not the dark angry version of Picard. He’s still very much the man you know from Next Generation. But the circumstances of his life have changed radically and threw him off course. And so he’s really wrestling with who he is now and what it means to be Picard in a world where not only does he not have an army, but things are very, very gray. How do you hold on to your clear moral compass in a world that’s very gray? There is no greater captain in my mind for that challenge than Picard.”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

According to series co-creator Michael Chabon, one of the themes Star Trek: Picard explores is the “it’s never too late” concept of age and retrospection. This, according to Chabon, is something mostly unseen in the Star Trek universe.

“What we haven’t ever had before, not just on Star Trek, but on almost any television show ever, and certainly any kind of serious dramatic television show is a central protagonist — a hero — who is effectively 80-years-old. Patrick was 78 when we started, he is 79 now. Jean-Luc Picard, in canon, is about 92. To have a person at that point in his life, reckoning with that question of: What does it mean to be a man, a human, a captain, a leader? And now he’s an old man and he’s still trying to answer that question, just like Star Trek is always trying to answer that question, but he’s answering it in a different way than he did before.”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Discovery ended up being the first series in the Star Trek television universe that strayed from the narrative formula of exploring a different mission on-board a starship in every episode. Star Trek: Picard takes that storytelling baton and runs with it. Not only does much of the program take place on Earth, the series, which Kurtzman identifies as “the first true adult drama in the world of Star Trek,” hones its focus on the characters in the world and not just that of Jean-Luc Picard.

“Uniquely, that’s a kind of storytelling which I don’t think has been done much, period. Much less, in Star Trek,” executive producer Akiva Goldsman added. “So we’re super delighted by that prospect because, as storytellers, it gets us to do the narrative hours in a way that’s different and complicated. Relationships get to change and move, and you get to show one thing and then reverse it up.”

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

As much as the team was able to switch things up and delve into a more character-driven storyline, essentially creating a 10-hour movie, in the process, Goldsman asserted that Star Trek: Picard was made for both the die-hard Trek fans and newbies alike.

“We’re trying to be able to deliver emotion and information and philosophy and character in a way that is engaging because you’re watching it,” Goldsman said. “And if you know everything about it, you’re like, ‘Well, that was cool.’ And if you know nothing about it, you’re like, ‘Well, that was cool.’ And it might be cool, differently. It may have more color, or more revelation, depending on where you live in that spectrum of audience. But we really, really wanted to be welcoming of a listener’s heart. Because that’s part of the story we’re trying to tell.”

Chabon agreed: “We were absolutely committed to the idea that we wanted to make a show that, if you’ve never seen Star Trek — if you’re not sure what Star Trek really is even all about and you think you don’t like Star Trek because what you’ve seen before hasn’t really grabbed you — or if you’re a total novice, you will be able to sit down and still watch the show and enjoy it.”

 

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Of course, having Patrick Stewart involved helps. The familiarity of fans to the actor, whose cinematic repertoire blossomed greatly after leaving the world of Star Trek behind, will surely help bring newbies into the fold. And, against his previous wishes, Stewart eventually warmed up to the notion of bringing some Next Generation characters and storylines back for another go in Picard.

“I was involved in meetings I’d never been involved in as an actor before,” Stewart, who had the added responsibility of co-executive producer on the series, explained. “I could contribute. And I began, increasingly, to feel my colleagues from Next Generation, we need to see them. They, too, can reflect how the times have changed. I think it was the right thing to do. And I hope, with time, we are able to see more.”

To keep track, four familiar faces will be joining Jean-Luc Picard on this new adventure. Brent Spiner is reprising his role as android Commander Data. Marina Sirtis is returning, alongside Jonathan Frakes — who, once again, steps behind the camera to direct — as Deanna Troi and William Riker, respectively. Star Trek: Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Del Arco will be bringing their beloved Borg characters, Seven of Nine and Hugh, to this new tale, as well.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Thematically, Star Trek has always operated best when it’s held a mirror up to society to show us what works and what needs fixing. The first interracial kiss on television happened in the original series, between Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Star Trek has always been a series based on the ideas of inclusion and exclusion while digging into the evolving question: what is humanity? These are some of the ways Roddenberry’s concept has thrived for over the past five decades. And that’s a trend that continues in Star Trek: Picard.

“This was one of the shows that our family, as a family, would happily sit down and watch,” Michelle Hurd explained. “When I got this job, that’s the first thing I remembered: sitting with my mom and dad and my two sisters and watching the show. Not only because of Uhur,a but the fact that it was telling the stories of people who were ‘other,’ the people who were pushed away. It just really brought me back to the understanding that Star Trek is more than just a show; it’s a place where we can all be seen and represented and it makes me so proud to be part of it.”

Every Star Trek has a bridge family, and, in Picard, a rag-tag crew eventually forms. But every unit needs a leader, and Stewart discovered stepping back into his most iconic role was quite easy.

“He’s never left me,” the actor admitted during the 2020 Television Critics Association winter press tour.

---

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Jean-Luc Picard may have been gone from our screens for nearly two decades, but his return is coming at just the right time, Kurtzman said.

“Right now more than ever, we need great leaders. We need great leaders like Jean-Luc Picard. And we don’t have them,” Kurtzman added. “My hope is that we will inspire people to remember that and think about that deeply. And the next generation that is now much more vocal about many of the problems they’ve been left with, because of previous generations, will look to something like Star Trek and say it’s possible. You know, maybe we won’t get there in our lifetime. But maybe we can lay brick for our children’s children to get there.”

Star Trek: Picard premieres on Thursday, January 22 on CBS All Access.

---

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

For All Mankind introduced a devastating tragedy with its eighth episode, “Rupture.” It was not the first of the freshman Apple TV+ series – and surely won’t be the last.

---

Spoiler Alert: The following contains plot points from For All Mankind season 1, episode 8.

---

The alternate-reality sci-fi series poses the question: “What might have happened if Russia had won the race to the moon?” It stars Joel Kinnaman as NASA astronaut Edward Baldwin and Shantel VanSanten as his homemaker wife Karen Baldwin. An accident strands Ed on the moon, worrying Karen to distraction and leaving his preteen son Shane (Tait Blum) lonely, eager for attention, and rebellious. In one defiant act, Shane disobeys his mother, who has grounded him, and takes off on his bike to play in a basketball game. Karen later finds out that Shane was hit by a car during that ride and must deal with the life-threatening injury without her husband.

The series also stars Michael Dorman as Gordo Stevens, Sarah Jones as Tracy Stevens, Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison, Jodi Balfour as Ellen Waverly, Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole,  Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb, Chris Bauer as Deke Slayton, Arturo Del Puerto as Octavio Rosales, and Olivia Trujillo as Aleida Rosales.

The death of a child is a particularly heartrending moment in a TV show, so we caught up with series co-creator and executive producer Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) to hear about Shane’s death and how it folds into his plans for series, which has two more episodes left in its first season, starting with Friday’s “Dangerous Liaisons.”

---

(Photo by Apple TV+)

Debbie Day for Rotten Tomatoes: “Rupture” was a very emotional episode, and it occurred to me that in your work, you feature extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances. It flips that screenwriting convention – “an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances” – on its head.

Ron Moore: Ed Baldwin is doing this extraordinary thing … He’s on the moon and he’s by himself and he’s in this situation and the Soviets are out there and he has no one else to deal with. And what would be the consequences of something very common … a car accident killing his son back on Earth, and how that would rock his world … In that sense, we were just interested in the human quality of it, that he’s on another planet or he’s on a moon, he’s 200,000 miles away from home, and yet this very pedestrian accident happens and that it would devastate him. And that the entire sort of massive team would have to come together to figure out what to do, and do they tell him and do they not? We just really liked the idea that at the heart of it was something that just happens to people every day, that it’s such an everyday occurrence. And yet to put it in this extraordinary context would be kind of unique and interesting.

I like that the flight director comes up with the brilliant idea of asking his wife whether or not they should tell him.

Moore: Yeah. It says something about the time, and it said something also I think even about our own kind of bias in terms of just watching it. Because you kind of assume all these official people should make that call and you kind of forget the human component of, “Well what about his wife or his spouse? What about his family? How did they feel about it?” Cause they’re the ones going through the tragedy. And then it’s not just about official NASA policy, it’s about these people. And then there’s an underlying current of there were three men standing in that office looking at Margo and not one of the three of them even occurred to them to talk to the wife first. And that was sort of an interesting comment on gender and roles at that time and notions that persist today as well.

---

(Photo by Apple TV+)

Margo, for me, is a really interesting character. Maybe I just identify with her being kind of a workaholic, but she’s a character out of time in the opportunities that she’s made for herself in that environment. And I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about building those female characters that flout the conventions of that period?

Moore: It goes back to the original concept of the show, which was, “We’re going to do an alternate history, and we’re going to change things. And we’re going to say that by losing the race to the moon, ironically good things happen to the United States and the world, and let’s make it not just technological progress, let’s make it societal change and cultural change and what does that mean?” And he said, “All right, let’s tell the story of this young woman that you meet as a version of Wernher von Braun, and let’s see her climb the ladder in a way that wasn’t possible in that era.” Who would that be? What would the qualities that you would need to thrive in the 1960s and into the ’70s and make that kind of climb? And especially if she was tutored by someone like Wernher von Braun. And we kind of said, well, “She would have to literally be a workaholic.”

Margo said, I think in episode 8 says, “You’ve got to be better than the boys in order to advance the society at the time.” You kind of start with that premise and then you carve out the particular character and you just say, “Who is Margo and where she’s from and what are her values and what are the things that matter to her?” And this program is very important to Margo and she invests a lot of herself and self-worth into the success or failure of the space program. In her opening scene, she’s sleeping in her office, and she’s not just crashing on the couch; she has built an entire structure in that office that allows her to sleep. Mirrors that turn into plaques, and she’s got all her things figured out in a way that they vanish and no one even knows.

And she’s given a lot of thought and time and energy to creating that structure for herself. And that was just an interesting comment to sort of, that’s how we introduce her. And it kind of says almost everything you need to know about Margo in season 1. That’s sort of where it all began.

---

(Photo by Apple TV+)

There are many extraordinary female characters in the show. Even the journey that Karen Baldwin takes. At the beginning, she embodies that ’50s/’60s housewife model. Can you talk about what showing her path means when you’ve got all these extraordinary, accomplished women around her?

Moore: It was an interesting question we talked about a lot in the room. If you take the stereotypical astronaut wife that we’ve come to know, right? And books and television, even the magazine articles — Time certainly painted a portrait of who that person was. And now we’re going to say, “The world changes radically and it’s going down this other path, and people like Tracy Stevens are going to become astronauts, and Margo Madison is going to ascend the ranks.” OK, what happens to Karen Baldwin? What would she do and what does she hang on to? And you know, how was she forced to change? And you’ll see as we get into the last couple of episodes how the death of Shane really does dynamite that whole world. At first, she was just trying to hold on to what she knew back when at the very beginning Ed’s career’s in trouble, because of what he said to the magazine.

And then Karen clicks into Karen-planning-mode. Well then, you’re going to go back to the Navy and this and this and this and this, because that’s how Karen copes and deals with things. Then when her friend Tracy enters the program, that kind of is the first thing that starts to sort of threaten her worldview: Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Women are doing this? Because that wasn’t something that I thought was possible and no one told me that that was an option. And you see … she’s somewhat hostile to the idea, but as time passes she gets over that, she copes again, she makes new plans, she figures out how to keep her world intact. She’s helping out with raising the Stevens’ children and her friendship with Tracy survives it all and she’s moving on. She’s a survivor, Karen, she moves on and she’s going to cope.

Now the death of her son really does sort of start a whole new chapter for Karen. So it was really sort of plotting out how do we evolve that character while at the same time being true to her and the women that were like her at that period? It didn’t seem fair to just say that Karen would wake up one day and just be a completely different person or that she would just jettison her entire upbringing and her entire worldview. It felt like that would have to be an evolution. And then you would have to justify how those changes are made for a character like her.

---

(Photo by Apple TV+)

Can we talk about how 109 deals with grief in all of its forms?

Moore: Yeah. 109, we had to sort of face it directly. Two characters like Karen and Ed dealing with a profound loss and not being able to be there for each other and how they would individually do that. And a lot of us in the writers’ room, we had either gone through similar things or we knew close relatives who had, so we drew on a lot of that, of personal experience of people’s responses to grief. And it did feel like once Karen had gotten over the planning of Shane’s funeral arrangements and all that, that then she would be sort of left at loose ends. Like once that was complete, she had nothing left; there would be an emptiness there and she retreat, would try to retreat as far as she possibly could away from the world and away from everyone else.

And on Ed, lone, isolated, tired, had been told he was being rescued over and over and over again. And had to hear about this over the phone, that he would just shut down. He would just shut down, turn off the phone, refuse to talk, and he would just be alone with his grief. And that each of them in their own way was kind of doing the same thing. That they were both retreating from the world and they both just wanted to be left alone and manage their grief in their own way. And again, it seems like that’s who the characters were in that era, and they weren’t seeking therapy and they weren’t trying to talk through their feelings. They didn’t have any of those skills and those tools, and if they didn’t have each other, if they weren’t able to comfort each other, they didn’t want to be comforted by anybody, and they just started to step back from their lives.

The character of Aleida Rosales she’s the kind of character that, in a big cast like this, could get lost. What was the intention behind making a storyline out of that family’s journey?

Moore: It was an initial impulse at the very creation of the show to have a young character that we could watch grow up over the seasons, because the show is multigenerational. It goes through many decades, and I wanted someone at the outset who was very young and then it became, “Let’s make it an immigrant story. Let’s make it a story of how broad the space program is, that it’s not just inspiring people in the United States. It’s actually inspiring people around the world, and here’s this young girl who comes to the United States from Mexico.” It becomes an immigrant story. Then the challenge became how do you keep her on the show? Because she obviously can’t impact a big story for a very long time. And it was a lot of work, and we did struggle with at times to be honest, to figure out how to keep her relevant to the show when so many of the things were going on.

But we did have a belief that ultimately this is a clearly critical character in the life of the show later on. In a way it’s almost an origin story. It’s an origin story of a superhero or something: start at the beginning, see how she got involved with NASA, see who she knew and what the challenges are and then throw a curve ball in her world towards the end of the first season and then come back second season and see what happened to her a decade or so later.

---

(Photo by Syfy)

For All Mankind, you’re back in space. Was that intentional? Were you’re looking to go back to space?

Moore: Well, I was certainly open to the idea. I mean I do love space and science fiction. It’s just been part of me since I was a child. So you do it for a long time. It’s Star Trek and then Battlestar and you need to get away and not do it continuously. But then I kind of felt sort of ready to come back and there were new things to do and new things to say in the field and so it was really fun to come back and do a space show again. And I hope it won’t be my last.

Yeah, I hope it won’t either. I don’t know if you know, but Battlestar took like top spot in our list of the best sci-fi shows.

Ron Moore: I did see that. I couldn’t believe it. I was very touched by that. It was like, Wow. Really? Yeah, I’m not sure. I’m not sure I would have voted it that high. I don’t know that the child in me can actually put Battlestar above the original Star Trek series, but I do appreciate the honor.

See, I would agree with you if you’d said The Next Generation, but the original Star Trek, really?

Moore: The original, it’s brilliant. It changed the genre.

One of the things that I really liked about Battlestar and one of the things that weighed in its favor for that ranking was just the amount of time spent on developing character, and they’re not just red shirts or blue shirts or yellow shirts. Each character has an intention, and it’s something that I’ve seen more lately. I’d say it shows how influential you’ve been in this medium, that you see, for instance, in The Expanse, this focus on character and a lived-in quality for the show.

Moore: I appreciate that. It’s very kind. I would love to think that we had that kind of influence, and those qualities were very important to us in Battlestar, and we spent a lot of time focusing on them and saying that this is really what matters and this is really what will distinguish the show and this is what you’re capable of doing in science fiction. It’d be great to think that that’s influenced others. And that it continues to go in that direction.

---

(Photo by Starz)

Now Outlander was a little bit of a detour. I was surprised to see you on that title. Similarly, I think you’ve given the story more heft than some other people might’ve.

Moore: Diana [Gabaldon] had created a great universe in Outlander the books. And I just thought once you translate that to television, one of the first things you have to realize is that, “Yes, you’re going to see the universe” and “Yes, you’re going to see the world, Scotland.” That’s all fascinating stuff, but what the television audience really cares about are the characters because that’s who they get attached to. That’s really what they’re all about. That’s what they want to see. How does this week’s event impact my favorite characters? So again, at Outlander, we also made it a concerted effort to really try to get inside Claire and Jamie and Frank.

We certainly played a lot more of Frank in the show than really the books did, because I kind of felt that there was an opportunity there to really show the triangle and to really get inside Claire a little bit more, to understand who she was, because her whole journey in the first season was about trying to get back to Frank. And so you had to kind of understand and really buy into the notion that Frank was an important character in order to really understand Claire.

Outlander does really well on the Tomatometer, too. Is there anything you can say about the new season that we can look forward to?

Moore: Getting closer to the American Revolution, the split between Jamie and Murtaugh is going to come to a head and be very difficult for both parties. You’re going to see more of Stephen Bonnet, Jocasta, and all the characters who set up season 1, and there’ll be another character returning in the next season that we said goodbye to last season. There’s a lot of fun stuff. It’s just sort of a big, sprawling epic really is what it is —what it always has been.

For All Mankind is now streaming on Apple TV+; Outlander season 5 premieres on Sunday, February 16 on Starz.

---

(Photo by New Line Cinema)

TV is set for an onslaught of high-profile fantasy epics in the next few years, and we at Rotten Tomatoes can’t wait. Witness the buzz around The Lord of the Rings television series in development at Amazon — acquired for $250 million and expected to ultimately cost more than $1 billion — along with the Gormenghast series announced in 2018 by FreemantleMedia North America, and HBO’s endless plans for the Game of Thrones world. It’s a big change from the genre’s historical position in the medium.

It may be strange to think of it now, but Game of Thrones was a risky proposition when HBO first began development of the series, and its prospects were buoyed by the fact that its more fantastic elements appeared later in the narrative (we had to wait so long for those dragons). Prior to that, fantasy was relegated to syndicated fare like Conan the Adventurer and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Xena: Warrior Princess was an outlier in terms of quality storytelling, but its occasionally cheesy effects proved to the television executives that fantasy TV was too expensive, while other series proved it was often built on poor story standards. GoT changed that perception, even if the fantasy shows that emerged in its wake — The Shannara Chronicles and Shadowhunters for example — proved closer in story quality to the BeastMaster television series.

But The Lord of the Rings and the Game of Thrones prequels are not the only promising fantasy series in development at the moment. A number of classic fantasy epics and novels will become television thanks to the power of streaming services like Amazon, cable options like BBC America, and other outlets that are worth spotlighting. There are also a few notable series not yet scooped up by the powers in television that we think should get the TV treatment as soon as possible. So here is a handy list of the fantasy series currently in development and a couple we hope will follow them.

---

FANTASY SERIES COMING TO TV AND STREAMING

---

UPDATED: The Lord of the Rings

(Photo by Amazon Prime Video)

TV Release Date: most likely 2021

Based On: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, an epic tale of four Hobbits, a Wizard, an Elf, two Men and a Dwarf attempting to destroy the Dark Lord Sauron’s master weapon without letting him discover their plan. A war across most of Middle-earth ensues.

The Fanbase: The obsessive devotees of Tolkien’s legendarium and fans of the Peter Jackson film series.

Everything We Know So Far: Amazon is committed to produce a five-season series based on The Lord of the Rings in partnership with Tolkien’s estate and the various rights holders of the Rings and Hobbit film series. Amazon renewed the series for season 2, while season 1 is still early in pre-production in New Zealand, Deadline reported in November. The renewal necessitates a break in filming season 1, so that the writers room can reassemble and address season 2 plotting and scripts — possibly facilitating simultaneous or back-to-back filming of seasons 1 and 2.

While early reports speculated that the series would focus on a younger Aragorn, who roamed the lands of Middle-earth as a Dunedain ranger under various names like Strider and Thorongil, Amazon’s own teases contradict that theory. In February 2019, Amazon released an interactive map of Middle-earth extending into the far east region not included on maps Tolkien made himself; though he sketched out some topography for the area in his notes. The streaming platform also included this enigmatic quote from Tolkien’s Ring Poem: “Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky.” But after weeks of teasing, the map finally changed to reveal a Second Age setting — the time in which the Elven rings were forged and the Dark Lord Sauron conquered lands in the southern parts of Middle-earth.

The streamer also released the series’ social media pages on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In July of 2019, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona signed on to helm the first two episodes of the series. He and producing partner Belén Atienza will also serve as executive producers.

(Photo by HBO: Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark in 'Game of Thrones')

The cast includes Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Joseph Mawle, and Morfydd Clark as Galadriel. In March of 2021, Tom Budge announced his departure from the series, citing the producers’ decision to take his character in a different direction. That same month, Wayne Che Yip took over directing duties in New Zealand.

Read More: “Everything We Know About The Lord of the Rings Amazon Series”

It’s Most Like: The Lord of the Rings film series. Since the TV rights to Tolkien’s work remained with his estate, hammering out a deal with the likes of Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and MGM suggests Amazon has an interest in making the series visually consistent with Jackson’s vision of Middle-earth.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: The Lord of the Rings films are all Certified Fresh at 91%, 95%, and 93% respectively. The Hobbit films less so — 64%, 74%, and 59% — but they were always at a disadvantage by adopting the tone of LOTR. The tale of Sauron and the various people he encounters in the Second Age share the scope and thematic consistency of Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel.

---

The Witcher: Blood Origin

(Photo by Netflix)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The world created by Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski and Netflix’s Witcher television series.

The Fanbase: The various factions of Witcher fans who come to the series thanks to the novels, video games, Netflix series, and that song.

Everything We Know So Far: On July 27, 2020, Netflix announced its intention to produce a 6-episode limited series based on a key aspect of Witcher lore. 1200 years before Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) walked the Continent, a conjunction of the spheres forced the worlds of monsters, elves, and men to become one land. And out of the tumult, the first Witcher was born. Laurence O’Fuarain stars as Fjall, a fierce warrior whose search for redemption leads him into unlikely company. Declan de Barra serves as showrunner while The Witcher’s Lauren Schmidt is also onboard as an executive producer. Production is expected to begin in July. Unfortunately, Jodie Turner-Smith, who was cast as another lead character, dropped out in April over scheduling conflicts.

It’s Most Like: Well, The Witcher, but the prominence on Elves does offer it a slight Lord of the Rings vibe as well.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: The first season of The Witcher produced a Tomatometer score of 67%, but an audience of 91%, so the program will likely please fans of the Continent and its history.

---

Game of Thrones Prequels

(Photo by Macall B. Polay/HBO)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The yarns of history or myth A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin likes to tell while characters eat sweet meats and plot their next move in the Game of Thrones. Also based on the short stories and longer histories the author publishes while he is not finishing The Winds of Winter.

The Fanbase: Game of Thrones fans, which is a large part of HBO’s subscriber base at this point.

Everything We Know So Far: At one point, HBO president Casey Bloys said there could be as many as five prequel series after Game of Thrones completed its run in 2019. Developed with Martin, multiple premises were in an informal competition for a programming slot. All of those initial programs failed to become series, but a new round of spinoff development began in 2021.

In the interim, the first prequel to get the greenlight in a 10-episode, straight-to-series order, is called House of the Dragon. The announcement was made at the October 29, 2019 HBO Max presentation on the Warner Bros. lot in in Burbank.

House of the Dragon

#HouseOfTheDragon, a #GameofThrones prequel is coming to @HBO.

The series is co-created by @GRRMSpeaking and Ryan Condal. Miguel Sapochnik will partner with Condal as showrunner and will direct the pilot and additional episodes. Condal will be writing the series. pic.twitter.com/9ttMzElgXm

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) October 29, 2019

The series, set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen. Emmy-winning director Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones) and Ryan Condal (Colony) will partner as showrunners and will also serve as executive producers along with Martin and Vince Gerardis. Sapochnik will direct the pilot and additional episodes of the series, which will be written by Condal.

Martin responded to the news on his blog.

“House of the Dragon has been in development for several years (though the title has changed a couple of times during that process). It was actually the first concept I pitched to HBO when we started talking about a successor show, way back in the summer of 2016. If you’d like to know a bit more of what the show will be about… well, I can’t actually spill those beans, but you might want to pick up a copy of two anthologies I did with Gardner Dozois, Dangerous Women and Rogues, and then move on to Archmaester Gyldayn’s history, Fire & Blood.”

Martin released Fire & Blood, the first volume of a two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros, in November 2018. Centuries before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Targaryens fled Valyria and landed at Dragonstone. The book begins with Aegon the Conqueror, who married his sister and created the Iron Throne. The second prequel would cover the events in that novel up through the Dance of Dragons, a bloody, great civil war between Targaryens for the Iron Throne that saw sibling slay sibling and dragon battle dragon.

Did someone say “dragon battle”? Yes, unlike the now-deceased first prequel, the second story should feature some of the most fearsome of the Targaryen dragons, including Balerion (The Black Dread), the only Westeros dragon to have lived in Valyria and whose skull is seen filling the basement of the Red Keep in Game of Thrones.

“But… let me make this perfectly clear… I am not taking on any scripts until I have finished and delivered Winds of Winter. Winter is still coming, and Winds remains my priority, as much as I’d love to write an episodes of House,” Martin wrote in his October 30, 2019 blog post, following news of the series order.

In his September post, Martin gave an update following the intense media attention to news on the second prequel: “Yes, it is based on material from one of my books. (FWIW, those who have read Fire & Blood will realize it contains enough materials for a dozen shows.) This one has a title, but no one else has revealed it, so I had better not either. (But it’s not the obvious title.)

“It has a script and a bible, and both of them are terrific, first rate, exciting. They’re the work of Ryan Condal,” he wrote. “He’s a helluva strong writer, and a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, Dunk & Egg, and Westeros in general. I’ve loved working with him, and if the Seven Gods and HBO are kind, I hope to keep on working with him for years to come on this new successor show, the title of which is… Ooops. Almost slipped. Can’t say yet. I can say that there will be dragons. Everyone else has said that, so why not me?”

Across late 2020 and early 2021, a cast formed including Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy and Fabien Frankel. Considine plays King Viserys Targaryen, a kindly ruler of the Seven Kingdoms whose unusual plan for succession leads to the Dance of Dragons. The other castmembers either play his relatives or other ambitious people within the realm looking to use the instability for their own gain.

---

Read more: Everything We Know About HBO’s Game of Thrones (Dead) Prequel

---

Tales of Dunk and Egg

In January of 2021, word broke that HBO is also developing as series based on Martin’s “Dunk and Egg” novellas. Currently known as Tales of Dunk and Egg, the proposed program is set 90 years prior to Game of Thrones and will center on Ser Duncan the Tall, aka Dunk, and his squire, Egg, as they journey around Westeros. It is unclear how important Egg’s destiny as King Aegon V Targaryen will be to the program, though.

Four Other Prequels

Beyond House of the Dragon and Dunk and Egg, four other projects are in the works at HBO. These include an animated series of which little is known, a program Bruno Heller is developing about House of the Dragon supporting character Lord Corlys Velaryon – although it is unclear if it is a direct spinoff of that series – a show focusing on Princess Nymeria and the founding of Dorne 1,000 years before Games of Thrones, and another set in the King’s Landing slum of Flea Bottom.

They’re Most Like: Game of Thrones.

Chances They Will Be Certified Fresh Hits: Unless they’re colossal train wrecks, the prequel series will be hits. Until its eighth and final season, GoT never dipped below 90% Fresh on the Tomatometer. And with a new production staff coming in, the senioritis that plagued GoT‘s final year shouldn’t be a factor.

---

The Kingkiller Chronicle

(Photo by DAW Books)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: Patrick Rothfuss’s as-yet incomplete trilogy – which began with The Name of the Wind and continued in The Wise Man’s Fear – and other works Rothfuss set in the same reality. The main series tells the tale of a famed scribe and biographer listening to the stories of an adventurer, arcanist, and musician named Kvothe, who appears to have settled into a retirement as an innkeeper.

The Fanbase: Fantasy lovers and musicians like Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Everything We Know So Far:  Lionsgate has been developing a series, film, and video game series based on Rothfuss’s novels since 2015. In November of 2016, Miranda signed on as a “creative producer” for the film and TV aspects of the project. The films – the first of which is to be directed by Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi – will concern Kvothe’s chronicle, while the TV series will explore other aspects of Rothfuss’s world. Both the author and Miranda are said to be developing characters for the series, which was in development at Showtime. In February of 2019, Showtime president Gary Levine told reporters showrunner John Rogers (Leverage) and “a group of writers” were working on the series with input from Manuel, but offered no further details. The premise reportedly revolved around two traveling musicians a generation prior to the events of the main novels and eventual film series. By that September, Showtime passed on the series, but left Lionsgate’s television division free to shop it around to other outlets. Reportedly, a number of scripts have already been written and at least one set-to-launch streaming service may be in the process of reading them. In November of 2020, Miranda said working on His Dark Materials gave him a new perspective on the material and that it just needs the right director and script to make the whole thing work.

It’s Most Like: Other fantasy epics with a wonderful Interview with the Vampire–esque narrative conceit.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: It all depends on when it happens. Since the movie appears to be further along in development, it remains to be seen how much crossover will exist between it and the series. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted cohesion with the film franchises for the first couple of years, but eventually needed narrative distance. And without that strong tie to the films, it is unclear if fans will take to new characters without Kvothe as a unifying force. Also, this is assuming the film itself is a Certified Fresh hit.

---

Earthsea

(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Simon & Schuster, Inc.)

Based On: The Earthsea novels and stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Set on a planet of small archipelagos, various cultures, and a real magic tradition, the first novel centers around Ged, a young mage who comes of age while trying to escape a demonic shadow he conjured into being. Sadly, Le Guin passed away before anyone could make an Earthsea adaptation that reflected her core concept for the world: a fantasy setting composed mainly of brown-skinned people accepting the inevitability of death.

The Fanbase: Almost every fantasy and science fiction fan on the planet.

It’s Most Like: Itself. The Earthsea series set the standard for so many that followed.

Everything We Know So Far: Optioned for films by Nightcrawler’s Jennifer Fox (pictured) shortly before Le Guin’s death in 2018, A24 and Fox revealed in September of 2019 they will develop the project as a television series.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: Adaptations of Earthsea have not fared well. Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea, directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro, rests at a Rotten 43% on the Tomatometer and almost equally bad audience score of 46%. Le Guin was disappointed in its focus on combat and an externalized villain, despite praising its visual beauty. An earlier Sci-Fi Channel miniseries fares a little better with an audience score of 53%, but has no official Tomatometer score. Le Guin was not a fan, as it cast Shawn Ashmore as the brown-skinned Ged among other liberties taken with the material. Her criticisms of the adaptation are far more entertaining than the show itself. All of which means that any new adaptation has an uphill battle as it begins its development as a television series — at least the Tomatometer bar is set low.

---

The Wheel of Time

(Photo by )

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan and concluded by Brandon Sanderson — whose own Mistborn series is getting the film-franchise treatment — after Jordan’s death in 2007. Set in a world that is both Earth’s distant past and far future, the cycle of time is threatened by a Shadow of ultimate evil. It searches for “The Dragon Reborn,” a being of light fated to clash with the Shadow. Various enemies and allies of both sides appear as the main characters learn more about their fate and even cross into parallel worlds. Each book in the latter half of the series — books eight through 14 — hit No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

The Fanbase: Probably every fantasy fan you know.

Everything We Know So Far: Amazon and Sony Pictures Television announced in February 2018 that they are developing the series in concert, and at a London press event on Oct. 2, 2018, they announced that they ordered the one-hour action-fantasy to series, with Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chuck), who adapted the novels for television, serving as showrunner and executive producer. Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of Red Eagle Entertainment, Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures (Beirut, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After) are executive producers. Consulting producer Harriet McDougal edited the Wheel of Time novels written by her late husband Jordan and is the current copyright holder. In June 2019, Rosamund Pike signed on to star in the series as Moiraine, a woman who leads a group of youngsters across the worlds in an attempt to find the Dragon Reborn. Pike will also serve as a producer on the series. That August, the streaming service announced the five fresh faces who will play those young men and women: Madeleine Madden as Egwene Al’Vere, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon, Zoë Robins as Nynaeve, and Josha Stradowski as Rand Al’Thor (pictured above). In September that year, Hawaii 5-0’s Daniel Henney joined the cast as al’Lan Mandragoran, the last scion of Malkier’s noble line. In March of 2021, Amazon released a very brief tease of Pike’s Moiraine declaring “Do not underestimate the women in this tower.”

(Photo by Tor Books)

It’s Most Like: The Lord of the Rings, which may be a problem as Amazon’s five-season LOTR series is also in the works.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: It’s hard to say. Judkins boasts credits on CF seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fresh season of Chuck, but his primary credits also include a co-producer role on the 27%-scoring first season of Hemlock Grove; that said, the disastrous Netflix supernatural series starred Bill Skarsgård, who’s gone on to roles like Pennywise in CF horror film It and the mysterious prisoner in another supernatural series, Hulu’s CF hit Castle Rock. The key issue now is whether or not Amazon will have money to develop another property with an epic scope once LOTR begins production.

---

The Sandman

(Photo by DC Comics)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The DC/Vertigo comic book series by writer Neil Gaiman and a variety of artists, including Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Michael Zulli, and Jill Thompson, in which Dream of the Endless – the manifestation of dreams across the cosmos – faces a dilemma when his self-imposed obligations make it impossible for him to continue to function as he has for millennia. Of course, before he can deal with that internal conflict, he must put his realm, the Dreaming, back in order after being held prisoner on Earth for 75 years.

The Fanbase: Goths, Tori Amos fans, and people who started reading books for fun at a really early age.

Everything We Know So Far: After nearly 30 years of attempts to adapt The Sandman into a feature film, Warner Bros. Television and Netflix struck a deal for a direct-to-series adaptation — which is, really, The Sandman’s best destiny outside of the comics. Gaiman will executive produce alongside Krypton’s David S. Goyer — the pair was also attached as executive producers on the last feature film attempt — while Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg will co-write the pilot alongside Gaiman and serve as showrunner.

The rumors are true. The tangled story of Morpheus, King of Dreams is becoming a Netflix series! Warner Brothers and executive producer Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman screenwriter) have signed on to bring the dream of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman into reality. pic.twitter.com/cOMjPL5cqp

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) July 1, 2019

Following the announcement, Gaiman took to Twitter to clear up some confusion about his role in the series. Among the nuggets he offered: the series will be set in the present day — outside of flashbacks to certain incidents in history, we’re presuming — and not the late 1980s/1990s setting of the original comic book series. He will be involved “much more than American Gods” but “less than Good Omens.” He also hopes “we can make something on television that feels as personal and true as the best of the Sandman comics did.” The first season will be 11 episodes and comprise the story told in the comic’s first seven issues (now known collectively as Preludes & Nocturnes) and “a little bit more.” We’re hoping a single-issue tale like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Calliope” or “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” becomes that “little bit more.” Although, we’ll be stunned if “The Sound of Her Wings” is held back until season 2. The cast includes Tom Sturridge as Morpheus, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry as Cain and Abel; and Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian.

It’s Most Like: Good Omens, which is no surprise as Gaiman began writing the series around the time he and Terry Pratchett were writing the novel upon which the recent Amazon series was based. Both span thousands of years of history and see characters learning they are more than their titles. Then there’s also the whimsy to consider, and another role in which Michael Sheen could dress all in white. Although, the Corinthian is a far less agreeable chap than Aziraphale.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: Good Omens was a Certified Fresh hit at 82% on the Tomatometer. Readers seemed to like it a bit more, as it has a 92% audience score. American Gods, also based on Gaiman’s work, came out of its second season with 75% on the Tomatometer and an 82% audience score. Considering Gaiman intends to be more involved in The Sandman than he was during American Gods’ reportedly troubled second season, we predict a high Tomatometer score when the Sandman series eventually debuts. Though the comic was a magnet for Gothy types, it really appeals to just about everyone who gives it a shot. Presumably, its best qualities will make it irresistible to Netflix subscribers and reviewers alike.

---

 Gormenghast

(Photo by BBC/courtesy Everett Collection)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: Mervyn Peake’s mid-20th century novel trilogy — Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone — and the incomplete follow-ups centering on Titus Goran, reluctant heir to the immense Castle Gormenghast and the surrounding domain. But even as Titus grows up knowing he must eventually become a ruler, an ambitious kitchen boy plots his downfall.

The Fanbase: Writerly types like Neil Gaiman.

Everything We Know So Far:  Gormenghast fan Gaiman, Doctor Who scribe Toby Whithouse, and Star Trek: Discovery’s Akiva Goldsman set up a new version of Gormenghast for FremantleMedia North America in 2018 without a streaming platform or broadcaster attached, but in August 2019 the project landed at Showtime. While the 2000 BBC adaptation of Gormenghast, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (pictured above), focused on the first two novels, the new series will cover all three of Peakes completed novels and the two further stories he outlined prior to his death in 1957.

It’s Most Like: Historical fiction with a few fantasy trappings.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: Unlike most of the other projects in development, Gormenghast is notable for a distinct lack of magic despite its fantasy setting. Like the grounded first season of Game of Thrones, the more realistic world will set it apart from Middle-earth and the Hyborian Age.

---

The Chronicles of Narnia

(Photo by Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The seven Narnia novels by author C.S. Lewis, in which a group of WWII-era British school children gain access to a parallel realm known as Narnia. There, the Great Lion Aslan – a manifestation of Jesus Christ – teaches the children life lessons while giving them dominion over the land. The series eventually pivots from the Pevensie children to their cousin Eustace Scrubb, who goes from being a right git to a proper hero of Narnia. Santa Claus also makes a cameo appearance.

The Fanbase: Fans of high fantasy with overt Christian allegories.

Everything We Know So Far: On October 3, 2018, Netflix announced it acquired the film and television rights to the Narnia book series. The plan includes both films and television series, which suggests there may be a way to include the prequel novel, The Magician’s Nephew, in the story cycle. Mark Gordon, Douglas Gresham, and Vincent Sieber will serve as executive producers for the television series and as producers for features. In June 2019, Coco co-writer Matthew Aldrich signed on to oversee the adaptation as an overall creative director for both the television series and the planned films. In early 2021, Netflix film cheif Scott Stuber mentioned Narnia is still in the works.

It’s Most Like: As Lewis and Tolkien were friends and sparring partners, similarities between Narnia and Middle-earth abound, right down to walking trees. As realized in other media, though, Narnia is not as fully formed as Tolkien’s Arda, with the world, costumes, and critters seeming more traditionally European in concept.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: The Narnia film series followed a downward slope with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe obtaining a Certified Fresh 76% on the Tomatometer, Prince Caspian following it up with a 67%, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader striking out with a 50% score. But as the series eventually changes protagonists, the switch to Eustace always made Narnia a tougher theatrical sell. He may fare better on television.

---

Conan

(Photo by Universal Pictures)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The stories of Robert E. Howard featuring Conan the Cimmerian who roamed a fictional “Hyborian Age” said to occur after the destruction of Atlantis, but before the rise of “modern” civilization. An accomplished warrior in his teens, Conan became a pirate, thief and mercenary before claiming the throne of Aquilonia in his forties by strangling the man who was sitting in it at the time.

The Fanbase: Everyone from fantasy authors like Robert Jordan to filmmakers like Oliver Stone and former president Barack Obama, as well as fans of the Conan films like 1982 Universal Pictures release Conan the Barbarian, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (pictured).

Everything We Know So Far: At one time, Amazon was developing a series based more directly on Howard’s stories than later authors’ work or the Marvel Comics series of the 1970s and ’80s. Colony co-creator Ryan Condal was onboard to write and produce with Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik attached to direct the pilot. But years went by with no further developments and both Condal and Sapochnik moved on to House of the Dragon. In September of 2020, word broke indicating Netflix now had the property with Pathfinder Media set to produce. But as before, news on Conan is surprisingly scarce.

It’s Most Like: A Dark Age version of Thrones in which men wear fewer garments.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: In light of the significant change, this one is tough to call. Netflix’s experience with fantasy (The Witcher, Cursed) is encouraging, but without any creatives attached to the project, the program is even more of a wildcard than it was during the Amazon years.

---

The Dark Tower

(Photo by Photos by Jonathan Hession -- Sam Strike in 'Nightflyers' Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Jasper Paakkonen in 'Vikings' History)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: Stephen King’s flagship fantasy series The Dark Tower. Across eight novels, a number of short stories and numerous connections to his other writings, the series details the journey of gunslinger Roland and his band of friends as they attempt to reach the Dark Tower — anchor point of the multiverse — before the Man in Black can destroy it. Once there, Roland discovers he’s played out this cycle before, clearing the way for film and television adaptations to be sequels of the original novel series.

The Fanbase: King’s wide audience and fantasy lovers who manage to get past the rough first chapters of The Gunslinger, the cycle’s first novel.

Everything We Know So Far: Originally intended as a companion piece to 2017’s The Dark Tower film centering on the life of Roland (played by Idris Elba) in Mid-World, the series will instead start over with Nightflyers’ Sam Strike (pictured above left) as Roland and Vikings’ Jasper Pääkkönen (pictured above right) as the villainous Man in Black. Considering the film’s poor performance (17% on the Tomatometer), it is probably for the best. In early 2020, Amazon passed on the project, although executive producer Glen Mazzara said he hoped the series will find a home elsewhere. One year later, we doubt Roland will ever make it to the Dark Tower in live action.

It’s Most Like: Like a number of fantasy series from the 1970s and ’80s, it openly wears its Tolkien inspiration everywhere. In fact, King says as much in a foreword to the novel series. But it grows by leaps and bounds as King discovers a way to tie Mid-World to Derry, Maine, and his other favorite locations.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: It seems The Dark Tower may be unworkable as either a film or television series. Or, at least, too expensive and unwieldly for companies already engaged in creating things like The Lord of the Rings and The Witcher. In terms of critical reception, any such series would need the full resources of a streaming service or cable outlet to be welcomed favorably.

---

The Ruin of Kings

(Photo by Macmillan Publishers/Annapurna Pictures)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: The first novel in author Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons series. Young thief Kihrin discovers he may be of the royal bloodline, and he may also be at the center of a prophecy stating that he will end the empire. There are a lot of conditional statements in his life, making him sound more like the most timid Skyrim player to ever live. But the Black Brotherhood, after buying him as a slave, may provide motivation enough for him to care about his foretold destiny.

The Fanbase: Since the book only debuted in February 2019, the fanbase is still forming.

Everything We Know So Far: Annapurna Television optioned the rights shortly after The Ruin of Kings was published. Presumably, the search is underway for key creatives and a home for the program.

It’s Most Like: Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings with its mix of prophecies, scrappy heroes, gods, witches, zombies, and even krakens.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: Even odds. A Chorus of Dragons is such a new concept that a simple logline makes it sound utterly derivative of other popular series. But with fantasy, it is all in how those well-worn creatures and tropes get used. And if reviews of the novel are to be believed, The Ruin of Kings mixes those elements in an unexpected and worthwhile way.

---

The Broken Earth

(Photo by Orbit)

TV Release Date: TBD

Based On: N.K. Jemisin’s novels about a world in which the single supercontinent, Stillness, is ravaged every few centuries by a dramatic climate change known as “The Fifth Season.” The most recent Fifth Season proved to be particularly bad, leading some to believe the end is at hand. The society of Stillness is broken into races, castes and species. Those divisions help and hinder the people’s efforts to weather the possible apocalypse. Set against this landscape is the tale of three women with the power to both calm and agitate seismic activity under Stillness. All three books in the series won the Hugo Award for best novel.

The Fanbase: The voting bodies of both the Hugo Awards and the Nebulas, who nominated The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate for best novel in their respective years.

Everything We Know So Far: The Fifth Season was optioned by TNT in August of 2017 with Sleepy Hollow’s Leigh Dana Jackson set to write the pilot. Heroes’ Tim Kring was also set to serve as an executive producer. There has been no news since, but development on even a simple (from a design perspective) high-school drama can take forever.

It’s most like… Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind with a touch of Game of Thrones.

Chances It Will Be a Certified Fresh Hit: As suggested above, it could be a strong counter-program to Amazon’s The Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings series with a strong emphasis on female characters and ecological disaster. At the same time, TNT is not known for long-running fantasy series – unless you count the fantastic elements of The Librarians – with its last true fantasy project, The Mists of Avalon, debuting back in 2001. That miniseries falters at 44% on the Tomatometer, but it should be noted that TNT was very different entity at the time. The current leadership could offer The Broken Earth the money and support it needs to be a special voice in fantasy television.

---

OUR FANTASY TV WISH LIST

Elric of Melniboné

(Photo by Nelson Doubleday)

Based On: The novellas – and later novels – of Michael Moorcock featuring Elric, a frail albino who also happens to be the 428th and final emperor of Meliboné. Though quite weak, Elric’s sword, Stormbringer, offers him renewed health and vitality, but it requires a constant supply of souls to keep it powered. At odds with traditional Meliboné society, his antics cause him troubles at court and lead to his own nephew plotting a coup against him.

Why We Want a TV Series: In its setting, it may remind some of Lord of the Rings and Conan, but Moorcock actively wrote Elric as an antithesis of the Cimmerian wanderer. Heady, weird, and expressly anti-Conan, Elric’s chances of success commercially or critically are a long shot. But then, an enterprising producer could position a series based on Moorcock’s stories as a compelling alternative to Conan.

---

Dragonlance

(Photo by Wizards of the Coast)

Based On: The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing scenarios by Laura and Tracy Hickman and the later tie-in novels by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. In the world of Krynn, dragons dominate and dragonlances are the only weapons mortals not adept in magic can use to kill them. In the first trio of novels, the Heroes of the Lance fight to restore order to the realm. Since then, nearly 200 Dragonlance novels have been published.

Why We Want a TV Series: While seemingly obscure, a properly developed Dragonlance series would have the potential to fill the void left by Game of Thrones when it ends in 2019. The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons film is said to be based on Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first Dragonlance novel, but a full series devoted to the game mechanics of D&D and the world of Krynn could be something revolutionary. And as Geek & Sundry’s Critical Role proves every Thursday, there is an audience for stories steeped in the role-playing tradition.

Got another fantasy novel or series you think a smart network or streaming service should adapt? Let us know in the comments. 

 

 

Mark your calendars for stardate 11020.23 (we think) — that is, January 23, 2020 — when the highly anticipated Star Trek: Picard finally launches, the cast and creators announced at New York Comic-Con on Saturday.

The CBS All Access spin-off stars Patrick Stewart as the legendary Jean-Luc Picard and will include numerous familiar faces from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which first introduced the titular character. Data (Brent Spiner), William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) all make their return in the new series.

Revisiting Picard 20 years later felt like less of a job and more of a gift, executive producer Akiva Goldsman said at the top of the October 5 Star Trek Universe panel at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.

“I think we’ve done pretty well,” Goldsman said of living up to The Next Generation’s formidable standard. “You’re surrounded by a lot of people who love Star Trek and a lot of people who love Captain Picard — and who actually love Patrick Stewart — so it very quickly went from ‘job’ to ‘opportunity.’ We’re pretty blessed, and I don’t throw that word around.”

To learn all the details from the event, including what’s in store for some of the franchise’s new faces, read on for everything we know about  Star Trek: Picard.

---

It’s an All-New Adventure With the Captain We Love

(Photo by Matt Kennedy/CBS)

The new journey with Picard and co. takes place after the events of the feature film Nemesis in 2002 (the death of Data, for one) and the eventual defeat of the Romulans (as established in the Picard-less 2009 feature). Picard has disassociated himself from Star Fleet and is spending his old age in retirement and isolation at Château Picard, where he’s joined by a trusted pitbull companion, Number One (a knowing nod to his longtime second-in-command Riker, of course).

“We wanted it to be a real-time follow-up to where last we saw Picard,” Goldsman explained of the jump in time. “We wanted to let the ensuing years that have passed for us also [to] have passed for Jean-Luc, so we all spent a lot of time collaboratively filling in those 20 years.”

And while there is development in the Picard scripts and its narrative architecture of what has happened to the former captain in the ensuing years, the story here picks up with the unexpected arrival of Dahj (Isa Briones), a young woman who turns to Picard for help following an enormous trauma, in turn reigniting Picard’s desire to return to the Starfleet.

---

Sir Patrick Needed Some Wooing to Return to the Role

(Photo by Trae Patton/CBS)

While Picard is one of Stewart’s best-known and most-beloved roles over the course of his expansive career, it’s also one that the 79-year-old thespian had vowed to never return to again. So how did executive producer Alex Kurtzman and his team of Star Trek diehards persuade him? Through an admiring patience and persistence.

“He was sure about saying no. He was positively negative about the whole thing,” Kurtzman teased of the first pitch meeting between himself, Stewart, Goldsman, and supervising producer Kirsten Beyer. “We pitched and he said, ‘It’s lovely — and no thank you.’ He said, ‘I couldn’t possibly, but I really appreciate it.’”

The idea initially came together as Kurtzman was mapping out his new string of his short film series, Short Treks, and posited the idea of a Picard-focused outing.

“Akiva and Kirsten and I were sort of thinking about what that would be, and then we went, ‘A Short Trek would be great, but what if we could bring him back?’ ” Kurtzman recalled. “So I called his agent and I said, ‘I know he’s probably never coming back, but would you do us the favor of trying to set up a meeting?’”

And while Stewart’s initial response was a decisive no, he soon reconsidered, asking for a four-page mock-up of the plan for the 10-episode order. What writer, executive producer, and Star Trek superfan Michael Chabon ended up turning in, as Stewart remembers it, was a bit longer.

“I seem to remember 35 [pages],” Stewart said, laughing about the attempt by the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist (for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) to woo him.

“It was an incredible document,” Kurtzman agreed. “And I can tell you that one of the greatest moments that we had was coming to see you [Stewart] after you had read the document not knowing what the response was going to be, and you walked into the room and you were smiling. That was the moment.”

---

Picard Isn’t All About Being a TNG Reunion, Though

(Photo by Trae Patton/CBS)

While the response in the room to seeing the likes of Data and Riker pop up in the NYCC trailer for Picard was rapturous, to say the least, the creators on stage did emphasize that they didn’t want it to be just a shallow reunion show. When asked about how they negotiated bringing back fan-favorite franchise vets and serving the heart of the story, executive producer Heather Kadin explained that no one was brought back thoughtlessly or without the bigger picture in mind.

“A big concern was we did not want it to be — and especially Patrick did not want it to be — a TNG reunion show,” she said. “And I think what you can even tell from the trailer and what you’ll definitely tell when you watch the series is we only brought people back if their story really mattered to the story we were telling. We didn’t want it to be, ‘And then over here is Riker!’ You know? I don’t think the fans would’ve appreciated that, either, and it was really important to Patrick, who obviously has longstanding, deep relationships with these people, that if we’re going to go to them and say, ‘Join a show that’s called Picard,’ that we give them something significant to do. You’ll see that each one of them has a pivotal, emotional story to tell in our 10 episodes.”

---

New Heroes Will Run A-Plenty — Though What’s in Store Is Still Under Wraps

(Photo by Trae Patton/CBS)

Joining the Picard creatives and Stewart on the NYCC stage were series newcomers Briones, Santiago Cabrera (Cristobal “Chris” Rios), Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Harry Treadaway ( Narek), and Evan Evagora (Elnor). While the actors are contractually obligated to remain tight-lipped, we did learn some necessary backstory for what to expect going into the January premiere.

When Dahj comes in search for Picard’s help, that help quickly becomes a two-way street, Briones said.

“When Dahj and Picard first meet, it’s this really special moment of two lost souls colliding in a way in this crazy circumstance that is born out of tragedy. [It’s] two people helping each other. It starts with me asking for help, but I think we help each other, which is a really, really beautiful moment to have with Sir Patrick Stewart,” Briones said.

Though she couldn’t reveal too much, she said “‘complicated’ is a good word” to describe the predicament Dahj finds herself in.

“I am seeking help from him because of a horrible tragedy that I have just gone through, and my gut is telling me to go to Picard, and that in itself is so complicated, just the feeling of me needing someone and going to this man saying, ‘I need help,’” Briones said.

Kadin added that much like Tilly on Star Trek: Discovery, Dahj will be a point of entry for non-Star Trek fans to jump into the world of Picard.

“In the way Tilly has been a representation of someone new to the world on Discovery, I think you’ll find that Isa’s character gives you that way into this show,” she said. “But I also think that Patrick has so many fans from so many things that I think that he’s going to bring that to this show, and I think people are going to be able to be welcomed into it without a problem.”

As far as the other characters, “complicated” remained the word of the hour, whether it was used to describe the shared history of Raffi and Picard (per Hurd: “We have a past. We’ve worked together, and we had a falling out.”); of Rios’s return to Starfleet after he left “due to some traumatic events in his past in relation to Starfleet,” according to Cabrera; or of the introduction of “odd couple” Romulans Narek and Elnor, who are navigating a world in which they are no longer welcome.

Pill’s Dr. Jurati comes into the mix after being swept up in Picard’s once-in-a-lifetime (and still-unnamed) intergalactic adventure.

“Picard’s mission ends up being exactly what she’s spent her entire life reading about, so they have the same goal in mind, and the possibility of it invites this woman to want to go on an adventure unlike anything she’s ever [been] on,” Pill teased.

Stewart later emphasized that it’s the series’ ongoing ensemble work that remains his top priority while being top of the call sheet.

“I looked on every aspect of The Next Generation as being ensemble-based, and in fact, that has been very much an indicator of where I was in my career — that the ensembles that I’d worked with, whether they were in theater or film or television, have always been to me like another character,” he said. “And so when we first met and talked in those early discussions, it was, my use of that word, the ensemble, the uniting of a group, because here we sit, I can only speak personally, but in love with all of these people on my left, and of course the people on the right. And that’s where the ensemble element comes from, and it’s very important.”

---

There’s a New (Adorable) Number One, and He Has a Personal Significance to Stewart

(Photo by Matt Kennedy/CBS)

For those who watched the trailer, we’re introduced to Picard’s pet pitbull, named Number One. While the dog has been featured prominently in promotion of the CBS All Access series, little is known thus far of what role, exactly, the pup will be playing. But it wasn’t lost on the NYCC audience that Stewart has a real-world connection to pitbulls, working tirelessly in nonprofit initiatives and fostering and adopting the oft-misunderstood breed himself.

With that in mind, Stewart revealed that when it became clear that Kurtzman was going to include a dog for Picard in this 10-episode journey, he pushed for it to be a pitbull to further destigmatize the breed onscreen.

“Once the dog issue had been agreed upon, I did campaign proliferously for it to be a pitbull,” he said, noting the prominence of the now-famous dog from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. “But what I didn’t know at the time was that Brad Pitt had gotten in there ahead of me, and there’s another pitbull now that’s become very famous in the last few weeks.”

---

Kurtzman Wants Picard to Continue Star Trek’s Social Legacy

(Photo by Trae Patton/CBS)

The turn of phrase that Kurtzman likes best when discussing his slate of new Star Trek iterations is that he wants it to be reflective of the social and political state of today’s world.

“Star Trek is a mirror that holds itself up to society,” Kurtzman said. And specifically pointing out the ways in which Star Trek: Picard will deal with its treatment of the defeated and refuge-seeking Romulans, he said that the series dives right into the muck of it. “We’re in a massive immigration metaphor right now in the middle of a massive immigration conversation, and we are very proud, I think, to say that we are diving head-first into that and to using Trek as a way of exploring it from all points of view.”

Star Trek: Picard premieres January 23, 2020, on CBS All Access

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

(Photo by FX)

Fall 2019 TV Survey: 40 Most Anticipated Returning Shows

For Rotten Tomatoes’ annual Fall TV Survey, we asked thousands of our users what they’re most looking forward to in the coming TV season and to reflect on the best shows from seasons past.

We first asked TV fans which returning fall TV shows they were most looking forward to, allowing them more than one vote to spread the love around.

American Horror Story took the top spot with 25% of the vote. No. 2, the second season of Mindhunter, which has already launched on Netflix, got 24.31% of the vote, besting The Good Place (23.7%) by a hair.

Read on to find out all of Rotten Tomatoes users’ most anticipated returning series.

Disagree with the survey results? Tell us in the comments who you think should have made the list or have been ranked higher.

*No. 22 reflects write-in votes; a few of the top titles included The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Mr. Robot, Chicago P.D., A Million Little Things, and Blue Bloods. (Some titles confirmed return dates after our survey was conducted; others, like popular write-in Star Trek: Discovery, have yet to announce.)

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

(Photo by Netflix)

Fall 2019 TV Survey: Favorite Netflix Shows

For Rotten Tomatoes’ annual Fall TV Survey, we asked thousands of our users what they’re most looking forward to in the coming TV season and to reflect on the best shows from seasons past.

Stranger Things again dominated the top spot across all demographic age groups and both sexes when we asked Rotten Tomatoes fans, “Which Netflix original series is your favorite?”

What we didn’t expect to see was a Mindhunter leaping from No. 13 in 2018 to No. 3 in 2019 or the major motion among the canceled Marvel titles: The Punisher moved from 21 to No. 6 over the course of the year, The Defenders moved from No. 25 to No. 13, and  Luke Cage moved from No. 24 to No. 10 — we’re noting a pattern. Even Iron Fist showed up for this party, landing at No. 23.

The vote disparity between males and females for the list was, again, worth noting. Marvel’s Daredevil took second place overall again, but didn’t appear in the top five for women, receiving only 14% vote from women overall. Mindhunter, meanwhile, was No. 2 among women, followed by The Crown, Orange Is the New Black, and Black Mirror. Newcomer Lucifer, meanwhile was No. 6 among women, but 16th overall.

We allowed survey participants to vote for multiple titles — read on to find out which came out on top overall.

News from Westeros and Deadwood from HBO, 90210 reunion event news, Star Trek plots a new course on Nickelodeon, and more of the biggest TV news from this week.

---

Goodbye, Westeros

While HBO is well into production on one of the Game of Thrones prequel scripts it commissioned last year, one of the potential spin-off series is dead. Game of Thrones writer and co-executive producer Bryan Cogman, who has written 11 episodes of the series (including Sunday’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”), confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that his spin-off is no longer in the works.

“I was developing one of the successor shows with George [R.R. Martin]. George has worked with a bunch of the writers, including Jane [Goldman], whose show is being done [as a pilot]. My prequel show is not happening and will not happen. HBO decided to go a different way,” he told the publication

“It is a goodbye. I am done with Westeros,” he added. “It’s wonderfully bittersweet. I’ll certainly miss it, but I’m excited to go out on my own and try to be in the captain’s chair of my own projects, armed with everything I’ve learned. I’ve learned more than I could possibly imagine from eight seasons of this thing. It’s been wonderful to look back and watch some of the old episodes, and see some of our old friends at the premiere recently, and to know that we’ve done something good. We’ve done good work that people enjoy. That’s all an entertainer can ever hope for. I’m eager to start the next chapter, but a part of my heart will always live with Game of Thrones.”

---

Shannen Dougherty Joins Beverly Hills, 90210 Event Series

Former Beverly Hills, 90210 good girl-gone-bad Brenda Walsh will appear in Fox’s six-episode event series BH90210, the network announced on Friday. Shannen Doherty, who played Brenda in the teen drama, joins her former co-stars – Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, Brian Austin Green and Tori Spelling – in the irreverent new series airing this summer.

“This time when the cast gets back together, it will come with a big twist: the seven former teen idols will be playing heightened versions of themselves,” Fox said in an announcement.

The series description promises drama inspired by the actors’ own real lives and relationships with each other:

“Having gone their separate ways since the original series ended 19 years ago, Shannen, Jason, Jennie, Ian, Gabrielle, Brian and Tori reunite when one of them suggests it’s time to get a Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot up and running. But getting it going may make for an even more delicious soap than the reboot itself. What will happen when first loves, old romances, friends, and frenemies come back together, as this iconic cast – whom the whole world watched grow up together – attempts to continue from where they left off?”

BH90210 will be produced by CBS Television Studios and Fox Entertainment.

Doherty will executive-produce alongside Chris Alberghini, Mike Chessler, Patrick Sean Smith, Gabrielle Carteris, Jennie Garth, Brian Austin Green, Jason Priestley, Tori Spelling and Ian Ziering. The series was conceived by Alberghini, Chessler, Spelling and Garth.

---

New Trailers, C—suckers

HBO has finally released the first trailer for its long- (long-, long-, long-) anticipated Deadwood continuation, titled Deadwood: The Movie. The feature-length film, which debuts May 31, will star the series’ entire original cast (Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, and more) and picks up 10 years after the series finale. It also includes the series’ trademark penchant for blue language, but you’ll have to wait approximately 40 seconds for the first c—sucker to drop. Deadwood ran for three seasons from 2004-2006, and the stars and creator David Milch have spent the intervening 13 years fielding questions from reporters and fans about a follow-up. In just one month (and change), that follow-up film will finally be here.

Other new trailers this week include:

• a full-length peek at DC Universe’s Swamp Thing — see it here
• an extended look at Hulu’s George Clooney–produced adaptation of Catch-22 — see it here
• and another look at Epix’s Batman pre-prequel about the caped crusader’s butler, Pennyworth. — see it here.

---

Star Trek Boldly Goes Where No Kid Has Gone Before

(Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS)

The Star Trek universe is getting even bigger: Nickelodeon announced that it is developing an original CG-animated Star Trek series for the network. The series focuses on “a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning, and salvation,” and comes from Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters, Ninjago).

The animated series joins current Star Trek projects that include CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, short-form series Star Trek: Short Treks, an untitled series featuring Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, a potential spin-off starring Michelle Yeoh and based on top-secret Star Trek intelligence agency Section 31, and an animated comedy series targeted at mature audiences called Star Trek: Lower Decks.

---

The Netflix Shuffle

Tired of sitting in front of the TV only to scroll through Netflix’s seemingly endless options until you decide to just go to bed instead of watching anything at all? Netflix wants to help. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company is testing out a new “shuffle” feature that would play a random episode of television (like, say, an episode of The Office or Friends) for the indecisive.

“We are testing the ability for members to play a random episode from different TV series on the Android mobile app,” a Netflix spokeswoman told THR in a statement. “These tests typically vary in length of time and by region, and may not become permanent.”

---

Game of Thrones Vet Enters a Brave New World, More Casting News

Former Game of Thrones star Harry Lloyd, who just wrapped two seasons on Starz’ stellar spy drama Counterpart, will star alongside Alden Ehrenreich in USA Network’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s classic novel Brave New World. Lloyd Will play Bernard Marx, a citizen of utopian society New London, who vacations outside the safe New World to the Savage Lands and barely escape a violent rebellion. Upon return, life is not the same.

Joss Whedon’s newest leading lady will be familiar to Outlander fans. Laura Donnelly, who played Jenny Fraser on the Starz drama, will play the lead in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator’s newest TV project, HBO’s The Nevers. According to Deadline, she’ll play Amelia True, a reckless, impulsive, and emotionally damaged hero and menace to stuffy Victorian society. The sci-fi series follows a gang of Victorian women with unusual abilities and a world-changing mission, and was written by Whedon, Jane Espenson, and Doug Petrie, and will be directed by Whedon, who will also serve as showrunner.

Rosemarie DeWitt will star alongside Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of the bestseller Little Fires Everywhere. She’ll play Linda, the BFF of Witherspoon’s character, who takes in an infant who was abandoned at a local fire station. But when the baby’s birth mother, a Chinese immigrant who’s in the country illegally, returns, Linda begins to stress over the possibility of losing her daughter.

Shazam! star Zachary Levi will host the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which will air Monday, June 17 at 9 p.m. on MTV. And finally, The Masked Singer winner T-Pain has a new gig on Fox: Performing at the 2019 Miss USA competition on May 2, which will air live from Reno and will be hosted by Vanessa and Nick Lachey.

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

(Photo by Russ Martin/CBS)

Intentionally or not, by the finale of its sophomore season, Star Trek: Discovery, along with actor Ethan Peck, who guest-starred as Spock, provided an argument for another prequel to the original series.

At least two more live-action series are in the works: the first led by Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou about Starfleet’s shadowy Section 31 division, and the other led by Patrick Stewart, revisiting his role as Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation. (Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Isa Briones will join Stewart in the new series.) The Short Treks program has already seen four episodes released, and Emmy Award–winner Mike McMahan (Rick And Morty) is developing Star Trek: Lower Decks, a half-hour animated comedy focused on the support crew of one of Starfleet’s least important ships.

Even if the intention is to see Spock recur on Discovery, the case made for a series about a young and hungry Enterprise crew led by Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Peck as an up-and-coming version of the iconic sci-fi figure couldn’t be stronger.

Discovery’s second season focused on universal themes of family, understanding, love, and loss — all well-trod storytelling paths with the inherent danger of an attack of saccharine. Under the guidance of Alex Kurtzman and his team, however, the result has been mysterious, thrilling, unpredictable, and, of course, very worthy of the series’ recent third season renewal.

Both Discovery seasons are Certified Fresh: Season 2 currently has an 83% Tomatometer score, while season 1, which endured a lot of huff and bluster about what Star Trek is supposed to be, is just behind it at a healthy 82%.

Ahead of season 2, some residual grousing turned up around the highly anticipated appearance of Spock, the brother of lead character Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green.

As Sopan Deb of The New York Times wrote in a recap of the season premiere: “There is an elephant on the bridge. Spock … It’s always been a sore point that Burnham is supposed to be Spock’s foster [sister], whom apparently we never hear about in the history of all of Star Trek. In ‘Brother,’ we get hints about this. Burnham suggests that Spock didn’t accept her as a sibling — which seems, frankly, out of character for Spock, but it’s too early to determine that until we see how this story unfolds.”

---

(Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS)

Now the story has unfolded, and we’ve witnessed Michael and Spock push and pull against each other as if connected by rubber bands. Will they or won’t they be a family? In the finale that aired Thursday night, we found out that they will. The hate Michael perceived Spock had for her melted away over the course of the season — life lesson: bad feelings will escalate when fueled by a lack of communication. The finale showed just how deeply his love for his sister ran, with Spock choosing to accompany her into the unknown and their mutual dismay when it becomes apparent that their ever-after as loving siblings is not to be.

“Personal log: Stardate 1201.7,” Spock says in voice-over of a scene of him embracing their mother in the finale. “One hundred and twenty-four days have passed since your disappearance…We’ve sworn never to speak your name in the presence of others. Yet, I feel you with me, always.”

We spoke to Peck ahead of the finale to find out how the season went for him and what it’s been like inhabiting such an beloved character in an enormous franchise, and, though he was understandably circumspect about whether we’ll see more Spock, one thing’s certain: He won’t be wearing a red shirt.

---

(Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS)

Debbie Day for Rotten Tomatoes: It’s been so exciting to watch your character develop over the season; the arc has been quite extreme for Spock. Fans have a very specific vision about what the character is, but they start in a very different place with you — can you talk a little bit about that?

Ethan Peck: You’re absolutely right. The season arc is hugely transformational for him. I consider it, I understand it to be sort of his genesis. He is in this place of uncertainty, and back in the beginning of his appearance on season 2 of Discovery, and he ends up much closer to the Mr. Spock we met at the beginning of the original series. It’s just an incredible honor, not just to play Spock, but to play him in this moment in his life when he is full of doubts and he has these pieces of himself that aren’t quite yet fitting together well.

What makes Spock so special is that he is these polar opposites, but they live together in harmony and he creates something much more than either human or Vulcan, in my opinion. I think this is why he’s so highly regarded and so respected and so compelling; because he makes the space in himself for the cold Vulcan logic and the warm hysterical human tendencies. That’s an amazing character to play and to be, and to have found that, I think there was an effort on not just my side, but on the writer’s side to make sure that it was clear he’s not yet the Spock that we have known to come and love in the original series.

We get glimpses along the way, and I think at the end we really come full bore with that mature Spock, or begin to.

---

(Photo by Russ Martin/CBS)

Did you know going into this that you were going to play this very special moment in the character’s life? How much did you know about what this season would be for him?

Peck: I didn’t know all that much. I think they took, obviously a huge risk, casting me. Not necessarily — in my opinion — being proven as an actor. Who knows, because it is such a delicate balance in this character and the portrayal of this character of logic and emotion. But then I think that they saw I was extremely dedicated and passionate about doing it, about understanding it, and I was working on the edge of my abilities throughout the season, and I learned so much from doing it. Not just from the experience itself of creating and showing up every day on set and working, but from Spock himself.

I think they gave me a little more responsibility as they went on, and I’d like to think that what I did informed their decision to keep him on. I think in maybe some worlds, there was a possibility that I totally shat the bed, excuse my language, and they gave me less responsibilities, sorta phased me out, so I just feel incredibly grateful and honored. It’s all very surreal to me, still. I just feel filled with those feelings of gratitude and honor.

For fans of the franchise, it’s been very exciting to have the character there. One of the highlights, of course, is when it’s becoming apparent what Michael’s role is exactly with the angel: that she is responsible for some of the signals. But then Spock’s shuttle is disabled, and he’s not able to get back to Discovery to continue on the journey with her. How did you build that emotional moment for the character with his sister?

Peck: To speak specifically to the good bye on the shuttle, I think all of the work that we’ve all done with the Spock in the months that I’ve been there prior to that moment was really priming me for that good bye. I think in that moment, we really see Spock take ownership of himself and of his constituents: of this Vulcan side, of this human side. It’s an action that is deeply emotional and executed highly logically.

In the beginning of part one of the finale, Spock decides that he will stay with Discovery. That’s a very emotionally driven move. He wants to stay with his family, he wants to stay with his sister, with one of the, I think, few places that he can call home — if you can call a person a home — because, in a way, they have so much in common. Although she’s not half human–half Vulcan, she is. She was this human that was raised on Vulcan, and in season 1 you really see her become more human and learn what it is to be human. In this second season, I think we see Spock become more human and more Vulcan together.

In the beginning of part one, he thinks that he’ll stay, but in the end, he knows that he can’t and must say goodbye, and emotionally he would be driven to go with Michael Burnham with Discovery into the future, but logically it’s not possible. I think maybe at that moment he discovers there’s a responsibility he has to tie up his end of the journey, which is to remain.

---

(Photo by John Medland/CBS)

The relationship was a continuation from moments that we hadn’t seen as viewers. I was really interested in your emotional build to that moment with a person with whom you’ve supposedly had such a fraught relationship.

Peck: Yeah. I think it’s a great competition that exists between the two of them — as does exist between many siblings — and we really, I think, dug into the sibling rivalry of it all. Also, I think they’re very similar; they’re both hyper-intelligent, they’re both, I think, perfect candidates for Starfleet, they have dedicated themselves to something larger than just who they are as single beings. So I think there’s a great respect that lives between them that, in the beginning, I don’t think is honored, but there’s a lot of anger on both sides, but they realize that they probably understand each other more than anybody else understands them, in all the known universe.

That feeling of being seen, of being understood, I think, is so essential to satisfying life. I think we all search for understanding and for similarities in one another. Because these are such unique characters, there aren’t many like them, and so I think to have found, I guess, sort of an anchor point in reality, is crucial to them becoming something more than they were, to evolving.

To quote Spock, “This comfort is essential to evolution.” I think that really encapsulates what’s happening in the second season between Spock and Michael Burnham. In terms of the preparation for that last scene, I think the whole season was preparation for it. I don’t think that I, at that point, needed to do that much work, but trust what I had built and what we had built, about Spock and about the crew on Discovery.

At the very end when she’s saying goodbye, she tells him, “There’s a whole galaxy out there full of people who will reach for you. You have to let them. Find that person who seems farthest from you and reach for them. Reach for them. Let them guide you.” Was that a nod to his future relationships with a personality like Captain Kirk?

Peck: Absolutely. I’m not sure who came up with that, but I think it was Alex Kurtzman, and I remember him just glittering while he was telling me this revelation that he’d had about this moment and about this beacon he’s setting for the future in himself that does end up becoming Kirk.

Discovery and Burnham shot off through a wormhole into the future, Admiral Cornwell is dead, Georgiou is somewhere out there, Leland died in a puddle of nanites, and Ash Tyler becomes a permanent Commander in Section 31. Spock, meanwhile, rejoins Enterprise and — despite everyone lying to Starfleet and saying that Discovery and her crew, including Burnham, blew up — he recommends that a gag be placed on everyone’s knowledge of what happened. What is his interest in making that recommendation?

Peck: Because of the dangers of Control. To really completely bury the knowledge of this omnipotent and sinister entity, it should be completely eradicated from the books. Not just physically eradicated, but also conceptually eradicated because of the extraordinary danger that he poses to the universe, or it poses to the universe.

---

(Photo by Russ Martin/CBS)

I think I know, but what’s the significance of Spock shaving?

Peck: I think it’s an externalization of his alteration. I think the beard is an externalization of his inner turmoil and his unraveling. To shave is a settling back into a security of who he is and his comfort with himself. That’s what it means to me. It’s also a part of his goodbye to Michael. The self that he knew when he was learning from her and being with her, and to shave it is a part of that. What did you make of it?

Just him transitioning — like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon — and becoming the man that he would be.

Peck. Absolutely. Yeah.

Is there any hope that we’ll see the Enterprise and Spock again?

Peck: Is there hope? Yes, I hope so.

Are you signed up for season 3?

Peck: I can’t say. I know there’s nothing out there on it either way.

But you do hope so?

Peck: Yeah, I hope so.

Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on CBS All Access.

---

---

Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.

“There is a great responsibility at hand,” warns series newcomer Spock (Ethan Peck) in a trailer for the second season of CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery.

Season 2 of the sci-fi/adventure series begins with a major crisis: the inexplicable appearance of seven red signal bursts across 30,000 light years of space. These signals, it’s said, typically follow the arrival of a being that Starfleet has coined the “Red Angel.”

“This could be the defining moment for multiple civilizations, millions of lives. The future may be determined by our actions — yours and mine,” Spock says, claiming that this angel has shown him an apocalyptic vision of what’s to come should nothing be done. “Someone, or something, is going to end all sentient life in the galaxy,” he says in the clip.

Rotten Tomatoes spoke with members of the expansive ensemble — from star Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham) to newcomer Anson Mount (Capt. Christopher Pike) — along with producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin to learn more of what’s to come this season. Below are 13 must-know secrets they revealed ahead of the premiere.

---

1. The Federation is rebuilding after the war

(Photo by Michael Gibson/CBS)

If one thing is certain in the Star Trek multiverse, it’s that there are surprises around every corner. So while Martin-Green wasn’t able to reveal many specific plotlines prior to the show’s season 2 premiere, she did tease two major tidbits: First, the season will pick up in the midst of rebuilding after the Federation’s war with the Klingons. And second, it’s going to make audiences cry.

“Season 2 is very much an exploration of science and faith. We’ve heard that said quite a bit, but it is also a deeply emotional story because we have a lot to deal with after that war,” she said. “That war left a lot in its wake, and we have to look at it. It’s like the tornado runs through the home and then you’re just bearing down and you’re gritting your teeth, and when the tornado leaves, now you’ve got to turn to your house and be like, ‘OK, so now we don’t have a roof. OK, now there’s flooding everywhere. OK, how are we going to clean this all up? Do we want to still live here?’ Those are the questions that we have to ask ourselves, that we do ask ourselves, and I love that. …We’re willing and ready to do the work and to show how much work it actually is to rebuild.”

---

2. Burnham’s been forgiven, but her actions aren’t forgotten

(Photo by Jan Thijs/CBS)

Star Trek: Discovery’s first season was very much a story of redemption for Michael, who set in motion the events that ultimately led to the central war. And while the season’s end saw her reinstated as a commander in Starfleet, Martin-Green said those earlier misfires still affect the woman we see on screen today.

“Unfortunately, it never goes away, right? You make a deep mistake like that, that has those kinds of consequences, it never goes away,” she said. “You learn how to deal with it better and better as each day goes on, but it doesn’t just go away, and it is something Burnham will have to contend with for the rest of her life. There will always be those reminders of that. There will always be reminders of the great loss of the Klingon War and how many people fell from that. And it’s a big part of the maturation that happens with Burnham over the course of season 1: the cost of arrogance, and the cost of thinking that because you were trained in logic, you’re right, and because you were trained in logic, you know what’s best for everyone.

“That’s not the case,” she continued. “If you have to make a decision for everyone, everyone’s perspective is needed. That was a big lesson to learn. And so that changed Burnham’s identity, and that’s a permanent change…. I say to Sarek in the pilot of the show that my emotion informs my logic, but my logic needs to inform my emotions as well. I have to find a way to accept my humanity fully, but also accept my logical way of thinking fully, and have them work together seamlessly. I think that’s going to take some more time.”

---

3. Burnham and Ash Tyler have unfinished business

(Photo by CBS)

Actor Shazad Latif confirmed to Rotten Tomatoes that even though his Ash Tyler (formerly Voq) left Starfleet with L’Rell (Mary Chieffo) after the war, he will be returning to Discovery.

“He does go back onto the ship because [he’s] sort of acting as this mediator, so he’’ll see them again,” he said.

Plus, he and Burnham may have some unfinished business in their affair.

“That is yet another thing that has to be dealt with because, yes, Ash is the first man that Burnham has ever been in love with,” Martin-Green said. “There wasn’t any time for that on Vulcan, and there certainly wasn’t any time for that once I joined Starfleet. It was just career, career, career, career. So yes, [his leaving] was a deep emotional betrayal, and that doesn’t just go away. Him deciding to serve L’Rell because he’s searching for who he is and where he belongs, that’s a decision that I respect very much as Burnham, but that doesn’t mean that the betrayal goes away. So I will say that no stone is left unturned.”

---

4. The truth about Burnham and Spock will be revealed

Some viewers have found it odd that the Spock they know from the original series (which is set 10 years ahead of Discovery) never mentioned his half-sister Burnham, but showrunner Kurtzman promised that that mystery and more will be resolved in season 2.

“Obviously there was a lot of questions from the last season, right? How come Spock has never mentioned his half-sister Michael Burnham? And we owe the audience an answer to that,” Kurtzman said. “It is through his relationship, his very complicated and broken relationship with Michael, that he’s able to actualize himself as the Spock we know from TOS, and that’s a big part of what this season’s about.”

Peck, the actor behind this younger, bearded iteration of Spock, also expanded on that a bit, saying, “They haven’t seen each other in a long time — and there’s a reason for that.”

---

5. This is an “untold chapter” of Spock’s life

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Click to see full poster.

“One of the things that I’m most excited about with this season is that this is the untold chapter of Spock,” Kurtzman said. “This is Spock pre-TOS; he’s not actualized as the character you know from the original series yet.”

Touching on the mysterious red bursts and the appearance of what’s been called the “red angel,” Kurtzman added that coming face to face with the unknown will challenge Spock in unexpected ways.

“He has seen something that his logical brain and logical training can not make sense of, and he’s emotionally ill-equipped to deal with it. So logic and emotion have failed Spock. He is trying to figure out who he is and what the signals mean and the red angel means,” Kurtzman said.

---

6. Ethan Peck embodies Spock

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Especially with franchises as beloved as Star Trek, there’s going to be heightened scrutiny around the casting of characters new and old. Spock for Discovery season 2 proved no different. Fortunately, after auditioning more than 400 actors, Kurtzman and executive producer Heather Kadin knew they’d found their man when Peck walked in the room.

“I think it’s because of the time of Spock’s life we’re going to be looking into and diving into, you wanted someone who exhibited those qualities that you’ve seen in the later versions of Spock, but also he’s younger,” Kadin said. “It’s like casting a younger version of yourself. It’s hard because you want that person to look like they could grow into the person you know. So that’s hard to find.”

Despite the stereotypes surrounding Vulcans, the role needed an actor who could exhibit wide ranges of emotion.

“There’s a misconception that Vulcans don’t have emotion, [but] that’s not the case at all. They contain it very differently than humans do,” Kurtzman said. “So what you’re looking for from an actor is somebody who can convey enormous amount of emotion behind that stoic Vulcan veneer. And when Ethan came in, then read, it was really clear that he was feeling so much and working so hard to contain it. Especially with the Spock that you’re going to see in this season who doesn’t know what to do with his emotion and doesn’t understand how logic and emotion fit together yet. He just seemed like the guy. It was very natural.”

---

7. Peck is Nimoy family–approved

(Photo by Paramount Pictures)

While discussing his character analysis and process in finding how he was going to bring Spock to life on Discovery, Peck recounted how he watched hours of the original series in addition to taking notes from Zachary Quinto’s performance from the latest trilogy of feature films. But one thing that really crystallized his Spock was paying a visit to the famed Leonard Nimoy’s family.

“I met with the Nimoy family, which was incredible. They were so warm and curious. It was like the first step of making me feel worthy of this because they were just so lovely,” Peck recalled. “I watched the documentaries they each made. [Nimoy’s son] Adam made For the Love of Spock, and [Nimoy’s daughter] Julie  made Remembering Leonard Nimoy. … They inspired me to be curious, and that was the best advice I could have gotten because Spock is ultimately a curious being. He wants to understand. He’s special in the way that he has a big heart, ultimately, in order to take in the universe, as well as a great mind.”

---

8. Section 31 is a looming presence

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Section 31 has been a controversial addition to the Star Trek universe since its introduction, but here, the top-secret intelligence division provides a perfect and tantalizing vehicle for the return of Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) from the Mirror Universe.

“Starfleet lives in a very black and white world. They have rules; they have to stick to those rules. You can bend them, but you can’t break them,” Kurtzman explained. “Section 31 lives entirely in shades of gray, and they do all of the things that Starfleet proper can’t do. That’s really interesting because when you have a character like Georgiou, whose conscience is constantly being tested and her ethics are constantly being tested, she’s really in some ways the perfect person to do the dirty work that Starfleet can’t do, and that’s an exciting place to explore. It’s a little bit gloves off, which is what’s fun about Section 31.”

---

9. Discovery will embrace exploration

(Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS)

Despite the likely more menacing nature of the seven red bursts this season, some positives come the development, according toAnthony Rapp, who plays Paul Stamets, and Mount. First of all, the bursts’ appearance is likely what brought Pike to Discovery in the first place thanks to the ship’s space-travel capabilities.

“The reason [Pike] needs that fast ship is that they’ve been charting these seven signals around the galaxy. The energy required to produce them is beyond anything humanity has ever encountered,” Mount said. “We don’t even know where to begin with what this could be. This could be a completely other level of existence that we’ve never encountered before. He is as consumed by this question as anything he’s ever been consumed by.”

And second, while season 1 was largely encumbered by the war with the Klingons, season 2’s developments reinvigorate the series with Star Trek’s trademark sense of curiosity and exploration.

“The fundamental core attitude of Starfleet is curiosity, and [Pike] is fully in the throes of that when we encounter him in the first episode of this season,” Mount said.

“The seven signals are requiring us literally to go around the galaxy and figure out what the hell’s going on,” Rapp added. “That means that sometimes you have to visit places that we haven’t visited before. So, yes, it was by design that writers are like, ‘Yes, we want to make sure we’re doing more of that exploration stuff.’ There’s still going to be this spine of the long form story, but it will also have a little more like, ‘This episode we’re going to be on this asteroid,’ and, ‘This episode we’re going be on this planet.’ That’s been really satisfying.”

One new territory explored? Saru’s home planet, Kaminar.

---

10. Love may be in the cards for Saru

(Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS)

The end of season 1 saw Saru (Jones), a Kelpien — an alien race generally regarded as cowardly — earn commendations for his bravery in helping to end the Klingon war, and the second season could see even more growth for the character in the form of a potential love interest.

“We have to procreate somehow,” Jones deadpanned when Rotten Tomatoes asked whether that was in the cards for the character. “I had a private conversation last night over dinner with our showrunner Alex Kurtzman about that very thing. About the possibility. So I don’t know what’s ahead for Saru. Personally, I would like him to find love because every character I play I want to find love and a sense of belonging in some way, shape, or form.”

After the events of the first season, “a whole new world has opened up to him,” Jones added, “so love should open up too, shouldn’t it? I like that idea.”

---

11. Ash and L’Rell’s relationship is more tenuous than ever

Outside of Starfleet, L’Rell (Chieffo) will explore her newfound political power among the Klingons and her developing relationship with Ash, who is undergoing a crisis of identity like no other. It doesn’t help that L’Rell feels guilt and remorse for her plan with Voq going haywire.

“We’re in therapy now,” she joked. “It is a constant reminder that I failed [Voq]. I came up with the plan, he decided to sacrifice himself, and I was like: ‘I promise you, I’ll make it work,’ and then I failed because I underestimated the integrity of the human spirit, which I think is a beautiful and interesting metaphor that she had to acknowledge.”

Now that the two of them are back together and Ash does indeed remember his Klingon life as Voq, season 2 has plenty to play with between the two.

“I didn’t expect [Voq’s] memories to stay with him. I thought that I was getting rid of [Voq] when I did the surgery. That’s the big shock in the finale…. So it’s that navigation of, ‘How do I respect the choice that he made to be more human but still have that Klingon within him?’ It’s very tense,” she revealed.

---

12. Klingon leader L’Rell is modeled after female historical icons

(Photo by Michael Gibson/CBS)

Chieffo cited real-life historical icons including Queen Elizabeth and Cleopatra as inspiration for her character’s journey this season, and said playing a powerful alien leader allowed her and the writers’ room to play with and expand upon how women in positions of power are portrayed onscreen.

“So many of these stories have been told from a white, male perspective,” she said. “Now it’s [2019], it’s sci-fi, she’s an alien — we can take what we love about those women and give her a little bit more of a fully fleshed-out story. If I could say more specifically, I would, but those archetypes have been very important to me. Someone said to me, ‘Being alien is to shift into a different octave,’ which I really like. There’s something about that that I think we both embody.”

---

13. Star Trek mythology has inspired its stars’ real-life activism

(Photo by James Dimmock/CBS)

Star Trek: Discovery didn’t allow just Chieffo to reframe her perceptions of social justice in the real world. Both Martin-Green and Wilson Cruz (who plays Dr. Hugh Culber) praised the foundational ideologies of the franchise for emboldening their views on today’s most important issues off-screen.

“I have to say as much as I much appreciate this job and this opportunity, I appreciate it more and more as each day passes with this [current political climate],” Cruz said. “It does inspire me to believe that there is a better alternative than the one we have at the moment. Our job as artists is to help people imagine and to help inspire them and to imagine a better world, especially in Star Trek. That’s what it always has done. It’s always asked its audience to imagine what it would be like if we all actually not just acknowledged and tolerated our differences, but celebrated those differences.”

In that sense, Martin-Green says, Star Trek: Discovery is her personal call to arms.

“For me, personally I consider Star Trek to be a call to arms. It’s a call to rise; it’s a call to action. Because yes, it’s one thing to see this picture, it’s one thing to see this utopia, in a sense. It’s another thing to see the work it takes to get there…. I want to step on the battlefield and bring up my weapon of love — love is really a weapon. It’s the most powerful weapon we have and it never fails.”

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery are released every Thursday on CBS All Access.