Star Trek: Jeri Ryan Was Asked to Replace Someone in ‘Nemesis’, but Not Marina Sirtis

At the 2017 Star Trek Las Vegas convention, Star Trek: The Next Generation star Marina Sirtis revealed that, during tough contract negotiations, Paramount Pictures threatened to replace her character, Deanna Troi, with Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager. At this year’s convention, Ryan says she was never told of any such plan.

Ryan says that while she was approached by Paramount about replacing someone in Star Trek: Nemesis, it was notSirtis.

“That was never mentioned to me,” Ryan said during a panel (via Trek Movie). “They did offer a role in Nemesis, to replace a different character. It was not Marina. I’m not mentioning it, because it was ridiculous. There was absolutely no reason to replace this character with Seven of Nine, so obviously we didn’t do it. So, it was not Marina, for the record.”

That said, given that she was asked to replace somebody in the film, Ryan wouldn’t be surprised if Paramount threatened to do the same to Sirtis as a way to gain leverage.

“They may have used that as a negotiating tactic, against her,” Ryan says. “Which is not real nice, but that’s not actually who they wanted to replace.”

For what it’s worth, Sirtis said she was not impressed with Paramount’s threats.

“When I was negotiating for Nemesis they literally threatened to fire me and recast Troi,” Sirtis at last year’s convention. “Well not actually recast, but they said ‘We are going to fire you and hire Jeri Ryan. And I said ‘Well Jeri Ryan won’t do it for that money, that is for sure.’

“Women are paid less than men in Hollywood, like everywhere else,” Sirtis continued. “Women are always paid less and the negotiations are always uglier because there is some kind of feeling that we don’t deserve the same money as the boys. It was always ugly. I quit smoking for six years but what got me started again was contract negotiations with Paramount. That is how bad it was.”

While this adds some new clarity to the situation, fans are likely to wonder who Ryan was originally meant to replace. The least controversial answer would have to be Kate Mulgrew’s Kathryn Janeway, who had at that point been promoted to Admiral after returning from the Delta Quadrant with the rest of her crew at the conclusion of Star Trek: Voyager, and who only had a cameo in Nemesis. Perhaps Paramount was just very intent on having some kind of reference to Voyager in what was going to be the final Star Trek movie for the foreseeable future. This also may explain why Ryan is so reluctant to name names since she and Mulgrew did not get along very well on set.

Who do you think Ryan was asked to replace in Star Trek: Nemesis? Let us know in the comments!