Star Trek: Picard has yet to be officially renewed for a third season, but series star John de Lancie has inadvertently revealed in a Cameo video message last week that both seasons 2 and 3 of the Paramount+ series are actually in production right now.
“Q is coming back,” Lancie said of his Star Trek character in a Mother’s Day greeting posted on Cameo on April 30th. “As a matter of fact, for the last two weeks I have been filming on Picard and really annoying Picard (Patrick Stewart) – really annoying him. Patrick was delighted to see me for the first couple of days and after a couple of more days of really annoying scenes, he said, ‘So, how many episodes are you doing?’ In other words, ‘When are you going to get out of my face?’ And the answer is six episodes. I think they are going to be coming out – actually I don’t know. But we are shooting season 2 and 3 all at the same time right now.”
It was previously reported that Star Trek: Picard had a pre-COVID-19 plan to shoot seasons 2 and 3 back-to-back. But when executive producer Akiva Goldsman was asked by The Hollywood Reporter if that plan was still in place last April, Goldsman dodged the question, saying, “I would love to answer that, but I cannot.” With Lancie’s recent comment, however, it is now confirmed that the series has stuck with its original two-season production plan.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 is set to debut sometime in 2022 – that’s around two years after the show’s season 1 premiered in January 2020. But since season 3 is being filmed at the same time as season 2, fans can expect a much shorter turnaround time between seasons 2 and 3.