WIRE Buzz: Picard S2 names 12 Monkeys' Terry Matalas showrunner; Peacock considers Quantum Leap revival; more

Make it so! Star Trek: Picard has yet to even premiere and already there are changes at the helm. While the CBS All Access series focused on Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise has already been renewed for a second season ahead of its premiere, the news broke that its sophomore effort would have some new leadership at the top.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Michael Chabon will be replaced with Terry Matalas for the show’s second season. Matalas, perhaps best known for creating and showrunning SYFY’s own time-twisting sci-fi series 12 Monkeys, also signed an overall deal with CBS TV Studios. Now he’s going to be in charge of 10 episodes featuring Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, and Jeri Ryan after the initial run through the first season.

Chabon had already been clear that his role would change in S2, but there was no word on his replacement until now. This CBS reshuffle pulls Matalas from MacGyver and pushes Chabon to his new series, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In other interesting news for the future of the futuristic show, THR reports that talks have already begun for Picard’s third season — though the network has declined to officially comment on the matter.

Picard debuts its first season on Jan. 23.

Next, a genre favorite may be returning to TV — this time on streaming. Peacock, the upcoming streaming service from NBCUniversal (which also owns SYFY WIRE), has been eyeing plenty of rebooted series for its nostalgic TV offerings, but now the first sci-fi revival is being considered.

Speaking to Slashfilm, Jeff Bader, NBC’s head of program planning and strategy, confirmed that Peacock is considering a revival of body-hopping, time-traveling ‘90s series Quantum Leap. “That’s one that I know everyone is discussing,” Bader said of the sci-fi show that turned 30 last year. The original featured Scott Bakula’s Sam Beckett, who would go around solving historical problems thanks to his technological ability to thwart time and space.

Would this potential revival feature Bakula’s return? Unlikely, considering the actor has been leading crime spin-off series NCIS: New Orleans for six seasons and shows no signs of slowing down. So does that mean a new, young doctor that can leap? And will that mean that a 2020 leaper could possibly travel back to tales of the ‘80s and ‘90s?

When posed with this potentiality, Bader admitted, “That’s true.” He also noted that Quantum Leap isn’t the only property being explored for a revival, considering the vast catalog of TV properties under the NBCUniversal umbrella: “There’s more that I think we’ll be visiting.”

Peacock is set to launch in April.

Finally, more NBC-owned genre goodies are coming down the pike from proven creators. At least, a pilot for a new genre show, anyway.

The show’s called Debris, and it’s a half-hour show from Almost Human creator J.H. Wyman focused on two disparate agents of the paranormal (think Men in Black) have to deal with a UFO’s wreckage and its oddball aftermath on the regular human population. The titular debris seems to be having a strange effect on the residents of our planet, and these two stars (hailing from different continents) are on the case.

Deadline reports that Wyman wrote the sci-fi pilot that got the green light from NBC, making it the first drama of the new TV season to make such progress at the network.

No word on who will play these two special agents when they eventually film the pilot for Debris.