Jean-Luc Picard is the Starfleet captain an entire generation pictures when someone says “Starfleet captain.” Patrick Stewart played him across seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, four feature films and three seasons of Star Trek: Picard, and that’s the kind of run that buys you permanent residence in a fandom’s heart.
Then it ended. And the era went quiet.
The gap Picard left behind
Star Trek: Picard gave the character a fitting final chapter, and season three did the heavy lifting by reuniting much of the TNG cast for one last major adventure. The series wasn’t always universally embraced. But the ending handed longtime fans real closure, and it put Riker, Data, Worf, Beverly Crusher and Geordi La Forge back on screen together decades after TNG signed off.
Since Picard wrapped in 2023, there’s been a noticeable void where stories about that era and those characters used to be. The franchise kept moving through new series and games. Next Generation fans just haven’t had many ways back to the crew that defined Trek for them.
That changes in 2027.
Ro Laren gets the spotlight
Star Trek: Shadow Frontier brings back Ro Laren, voiced again by Michelle Forbes, which makes it the first major new project built around a Next Generation character since Picard ended in 2023. It also takes the franchise somewhere considerably darker.
Consider what Ro’s return means. Picard season three was Forbes’ first appearance as the character in nearly three decades, and now she’s the protagonist.
Bloober Team is making a Star Trek horror game
The developer is Bloober Team, the studio behind the acclaimed Silent Hill 2 remake and Cronos: The New Dawn. Shadow Frontier is a mature, story-driven third-person action-adventure with a strong psychological-horror bent, which tells you roughly everything about the tone.
Ro answers a distress call and crash-lands on an uncharted planet littered with wrecked starships. A mysterious consciousness has corrupted the environment there, and it starts invading her mind.
Gameplay mixes exploration, combat, puzzles and cinematic sequences. You decide whether to confront the planet’s creatures or avoid them entirely.
Familiar Trek hardware is central too. The tricorder scans the environment, and the phaser works as both a weapon and a puzzle-solving tool.
When you can actually play it
Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is scheduled for sometime in 2027, and neither Bloober Team nor Paramount Games has announced a specific date or a narrower window. The game was officially revealed in June 2026, with versions confirmed for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X/S and PC. Its Steam page says “Coming Soon,” so there’s no telling yet whether this lands early or late in the year.
The timing carries some weight regardless. September 2027 marks 40 years since TNG premiered in 1987, which drops Shadow Frontier squarely into an anniversary year for Picard’s corner of the franchise.
Until Paramount and Bloober Team pin down a date, the wishlist button on Steam is the whole plan.
