Patrick Stewart has said that the highly-anticipated new Jean-Luc Picard series will be unlike anything done before on previous Star Trek reboots.
The 78-year-old actor will be reprising his role as the former Enterprise captain in a new CBS All Access series, that will be set some 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Stewart, who played Picard throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation’s seven-season run as well as in four Star Trek films, said viewers will find Picard at a "different place" in his life.
"It's the story of what has happened in the last twenty years, since the last time Jean-Luc Picard was on screen. The world is a different place.
"Actually, it’s funny everything I seem to touch these days is reflecting conditions in the UK or in the United States. That's the way it seems to me, or maybe I’m just wishing it were so," he added.
The series hails from Alex Kurtzman, showrunner of Star Trek: Discover, while Stewart is also on board as an executive producer of the show.
Writers working on the eagerly-awaited series include Kirsten Beyer (Star Trek: Discovery), Michael Chabon (John Carter), Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), Diandra Pendleton-Thompson (Lucky Night), and Emmy nominee James Duff (Major Crimes).
Stewart has kept mum on the title and release date of the new Star Trek spin-off but revealed "some brilliant people" are working on the show.
"I can’t even tell you the title of the series, all these things are banned, but I can tell you we are shooting in California, and we have some brilliant people working on this show."
"I mean the writers room is filled with brilliant minds. This morning, the book I began to read, a new novel I started, is by one of our principal writers Michael Chabon, who is a Pulitzer Prize winning author," Stewart said.
The award-winning actor is currently promoting Joe Cornish's new movie, The Kid Who Would Be King, which is a modernised twist on the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone.
When asked if he thinks the themes from the well-known myth about 'a divided Britain' and 'leaderless land' could be applied to Britain's current political climate, Stewart admitted there are a lot of similarities.
"They are a significant and huge problem. I mean, the cartoonist loved the image of the edge of a cliff but that’s where we are right now as a nation," he said.
Stewart's co-star, Angus Imrie, who plays the younger version of Merlin, agreed that the the subject matter of the legend seems "incredibly ripe right now".
"Joe [Cornish] wanted to make this movie since he was a boy. He used to draw sketches of The Lady of the Lake and Excalibur out of the bath.
"He’s had ideas of the divided countries since then but it does feel as if it’s incredibly ripe right now. I think that’s just a great sign of a piece of art that there’s a reflection in real life and it holds the mirror up," Imrie added.
The Kid Who Would Be King hits cinemas nationwide on Friday, February 15.
