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‘VisionQuest’ Showrunner Terry Matalas Gave Kevin Feige a Real Piece of ‘Star Trek’ History

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Terry Matalas has had a remarkable run in sci-fi television. After reuniting the crew of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ in the final season of ‘Star Trek: Picard’, which premiered in February 2023 and earned him a WGA nomination for its finale, he’s now steering Marvel’s ‘VisionQuest’ on Disney+.

The new series premiered its first 2 episodes on October 14, with the rest rolling out weekly into November. Matalas serves as showrunner and director, leading a cast that includes Paul Bettany, James Spader, Ruaridh Mollica, Emily Hampshire and ‘Picard’ alum Todd Stashwick.

Along the way, Matalas formed an unlikely bond with Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. Now he has revealed, according to ComicBook, that he gifted Feige one of Worf’s swords from the final season of ‘Star Trek: Picard’, a fitting present for a fellow Trek fan.

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The weapon isn’t just any prop. It’s the distinctive blade Michael Dorn’s Worf carried on his back in ‘Picard’, designed for the show’s take on an older, wiser Klingon warrior. Matalas explained its origins back when the season was airing. “The sword on Worf’s back is called a Kur’leth, and it was designed by the creator of the Bat’leth, Dan Curry,” he wrote on X, adding that fans would see Worf use it.

Matalas has said he imagined the older Worf as a samurai-like figure with a Klingon sword strapped to his back, while Dorn connected the character to Pai Mei from ‘Kill Bill’. Matalas has also joked about the weapon being gigantic and anime-sized, especially for a Worf who had grown more pacifistic.

The gift says a lot about the relationship between the 2 producers. Matalas has explained that he and Feige bonded over ‘Star Trek’ and became friends through their shared love of the franchise.

Feige’s Trek fandom is well documented. He joined Matalas for a 2-hour episode of the ‘Star Trek’ podcast ‘Inglorious Treksperts’, and he presented the cast of ‘The Next Generation’ with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Astra Awards.

Feige has said that after watching the final season of ‘Picard’, he wanted to find the person responsible for making it. That person turned out to be Matalas, who made sure Feige knew he was a huge Marvel fan eager to join the studio.

That trust appears to have carried over into ‘VisionQuest’. Matalas has said Marvel gave his team near-total freedom, with Feige’s one firm requirement being that Vision reunites with his son.

Matalas has even compared Vision’s journey to Spock’s arc in ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’. It’s a natural reference point for a showrunner whose career has been so closely tied to the Trek universe.

Early reception to the series has been mixed, with at least one review calling it a mixed bag that leans heavily on MCU references. Still, the show has sparked plenty of conversation as the final chapter of the trilogy that began with ‘WandaVision’.

Fans of ‘Picard’ have long hoped Matalas would return to Trek. He has revealed he wrote about 30 pages on spec for a proposed ‘Legacy’ spinoff, whose first season would have centered on Klingons and Captain Worf.

He has also said he would happily say yes if Paramount+ asked him to succeed Alex Kurtzman as executive producer of the franchise. For now, his focus is on Vision, but his heart clearly hasn’t left the Final Frontier. As for Feige, he now owns a genuine piece of the ‘Picard’ story Matalas brought to life. For a lifelong Trekkie running the MCU, it’s hard to imagine a better gift.

Would you like Terry Matalas to return to Star Trek after VisionQuest?

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