It seems the new Star Trek series bringing Patrick Stewart back as Jean-Luc Picard won’t lead to a Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion. Stewart’s former co-stars Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and Marina Sirtis attended Awesome Con 2019 in Washington DC and, during a panel, answered questions about their possible roles in the Picard series.
McFadden’s The Next Generation character, Beverly Crusher, had a close, sometimes intimate relationship with Picard. According to Trek Movie, she told fans, “Of course, I’d love to” appear on the Picard series, “but I have not been approached.”
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Marina Sirtis added that “None of us knows anything. They’re guarding that show like the nuclear codes.”
If Frakes doesn’t know anything at present, he will soon. He’s directing the third and fourth episodes of the new show. He and the other stars have commented before on their roles, or lack thereof, in the Picard show.
“The feeling is we would love to be part of it,” Frakes said in an interview. “But the feeling is also that it’s Patrick’s show. [Laughs.] Having said that, I can’t imagine a world where there’s no reference to what happened to the rest of The Next Generation cast. Patrick isn’t playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he’s done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show. That’s about the only thing I do know about the show. Patrick and I had a steak dinner a couple of weeks ago and this man, who I’ve known for 31 years now, is so excited about this show he’s like a little kid. It’s fabulous! He’s thrilled and excited to be invited into the writer’s room and he’s a producer on the show and he’s part of the development of the story arc. It’s terrific. I mean he is a guy who is fully engaged.”
Earlier this year, producer Alex Kurtzman told ComicBook.com about how else the new show will be different from The Next Generation. “Everybody in that room loves Jean-Luc Picard very deeply, and obviously, the benefit that we have is that Jean-Luc Picard is in the room with us,” Kurtzman said. “And so, as we’re breaking story, we’re asking ourselves, ‘How do we live to the spirit, and to the character, and for the tone that Next Gen set, but also make it something very, very different in other ways?’ And Patrick was really clear with us from the beginning. He did not want to repeat what he had already done. And by the way, it’s been 20 plus years, so he couldn’t possibly be that same person anymore.
“And so, the question becomes, ‘What has happened to him in that period of time? Have there been occurrences that forced him to reckon with choices that he’s made in his life? How do you hold on to being the person everybody loved when the circumstances around you may have changed so radically?’ And those are the big questions that we’re asking.”
Are you excited about the Picard series? Let us know in the comments! The new Picard series will debut on CBS All Access in late 2019.
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