Fandom is a dangerous thing. 99 times out of a hundred when a fan is asked what new exciting thing they want to see out of their chosen franchise of affection they will likely propose something very similar if not the exact same thing that has been tried in the past. This sort of devotion to a media franchise can be rewarding those moments when everyone cheers at the appearance of multiple Spiders Man as well as frustrating as when a new idea wrinkle character moment or unexpected death is introduced into a story.
But its tricky. After all, a showrunner can only stray so far from a long running TV shows premise before it ceases to be that show in anything other than name. It must be an enormous headache to balance between introducing new striking ideas into an extant series and keeping similar moods and iconography intact.
Terry Matalas an executive producer on and the showrunner for the third season of Star Trek Picard recently talked to TrekMovie about that balance. The third and final season of Picard which will debut on Paramount+ on February 16 2023 will feature an enormous reunion between Jean Luc Picard Patrick Stewart and the rest of the central characters from Star Trek The Next Generation. Marina Sirtis LeVar Burton Jonathan Frakes Gates McFadden Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn are all set to return. This grand reunion was more than a last hurrah for the cast and the fans however. It was a direct response to the way so called legacy characters were handled in J.J. Abrams 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
One might notice a structural similarity between The Force Awakens and the 1990 animated series Tiny Toon Adventures. Both were about a new generation of junior characters that very much resembled their old world adult counterparts and in both instances, those junior characters could interact with their elders who had taken on teacher roles. Just as Bugs Bunny was bifurcated into Buster and Babs Bunny Luke was bifurcated into Rey and Finn. Just as Yosemite Sam became Montana Max so Darth Vader became Kylo Ren. Just as the Roadrunner became Little Beeper so R2-D2 became BB-8. And so on.
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