The small screen Star Trek universe is in the midst of a rapid expansion, and Discovery recently made its first direct connection to the feature film Kelvin timeline for good measure. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman admitted that he had the future of the franchise mapped out until at least 2027, and he’s not wasting any time in getting as many projects into development as possible.
Discovery, Picard and the animated Lower Decks all have new seasons on the way, while the kid-friendly Prodigy will debut on Nickelodeon later this year, and Discovery spinoff Strange New Worlds starts shooting next week. The sci-fi element of Star Trek means that almost anything is possible, too, so it can’t be ruled out that the various arms of the property will cross over with each other more often in the future.
So far, Kurtzman has largely avoided relying on nostalgia for the sake of it, but a new rumor claims that Enterprise‘s Captain Archer could be set for a return to Star Trek, which will reportedly most likely be in an upcoming season of Picard. Scott Bakula was already an icon of the genre thanks to Quantum Leap long before he captained the Enterprise, but it wouldn’t be unfair to say that neither the show or his character came close to replicating the popularity of The Original Series and The Next Generation, or even Voyager and Deep Space Nine.
The finale of Enterprise did tie in with The Next Generation, though, so there’s at least a storytelling device already in play to explain how Archer and Picard could potentially share the screen. And while this is all just speculation for now, the unstoppable resurgence of Star Trek has made it a more viable proposition than ever before.