Patrick Stewart told Paramount he wants a Picard movie

The Picard show may have wrapped its third and final season in April, but Sir Patrick Stewart isn’t done with Jean-Luc or his story just yet.

In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, Making It So, published on Time, Stewart shared his hopes for his future in the world of Star Trek.

“I am gently pushing Paramount to let us do one single Picard movie,” Stewart writes. “Not a Next Generation movie, as we have already done four of those. This would be an expansion and deepening of the universe as we’ve seen it in Star Trek: Picard. I’ve discussed this with Jonathan [Frakes], Brent [Spiner], and LeVar [Burton], and they are all game. Jonathan is my first choice to direct it.”

In the excerpt, Stewart also talks about how much convincing he needed from show creators Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman before originally signing onto the show.

“I was done with him,” Stewart writes. “I had said everything I wanted to say about him. His journey, as far as I was concerned, was complete, and for the remainder of my life, I was eager to find work as far away from Star Trek as possible, to keep moving forward as an actor.”

Photo: Trae Patton/Paramount Plus

Kurtzman and Goldsman were able to bring him on board with a series of questions about Picard’s professional and emotional state following the conclusion of 2002’s Star Trek Nemesis, the last time audiences saw the character. Between that and the presence of Picard season one showrunner Michael Chabon, who wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, one of Stewart’s favorite books, Stewart was in.

But how did we go from not wanting to do the show to wanting to do a movie after the show? Well, Picard didn’t end how Stewart wanted it to, and it seems to be bothering him.

Season 3 of Picard ends with the old crew reuniting, bringing the Next Generation gang back together. But Stewart had a different idea — he wanted Picard at peace, away from it all.

“The writers came up with a lovely scene,” he writes. “It is dusk at Jean-Luc’s vineyard. His back is to us as he takes in the view, his dog at his side. Then, off-screen, a woman’s loving voice is heard: Jean-Luc? Supper’s ready! Is it Beverly Crusher’s voice? Laris’s? Someone we don’t know? It isn’t made clear. But Sunny [Ozell, Stewart’s wife] was set to record the lines. Heeding his wife’s call, Jean-Luc turns around, says to his dog, ‘C’mon, boy,’ and heads inside. Dusk fades to night, and Picard fades into history.”

The scene, ultimately, was never shot. Stewart says it’s because he delayed the planned shoot after a long day, and says the studio ultimately decided not to go through with it, calling it “expensive and unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary? I thought it was crucial to the completion of Picard’s arc,” Stewart writes. “But so be it: the TV series ended with the toast, which is a warm, emotional send-off to my favorite Starfleet crew. Either way, you now know of my original intent.”

Will Stewart’s dream ending for Picard eventually come to fruition on the big screen? Only time will tell. But a Jonathan Frakes-directed last hurrah for the TNG crew sounds like a dream come true.