Star Trek: Gates McFadden Says There’s a “Good Chance” She’ll Return in Picard

Another Star Trek: The Next Generation star expects that they will reprise their role at some point in Star Trek: Picard. Ahead of her appearance on a GalaxyCon virtual panel, Gates McFadden spoke to Trek Movie about her role as Dr. Beverly Crusher. While McFadden says she hasn’t signed on for anything yet, she thinks there’s a good chance that she’ll be on Picard sooner or later. When asked if she’ll appear in the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Picard, McFadden says, “Well, I don’t know. There’s a good chance, let’s put it that way. But I have no contract signed.”

Crusher’s absence from Picard has been a sticking point for some Star Trek fans. Throughout much of The Next Generation, a romantic tension existed between the Enterprise‘s captain and chief medical officer. That tension waned towards the end of the series, and especially when Star Trek’s creative team decided they wanted to keep Picard available for new romantic storylines in the post-finale films. Picard and Crusher’s relationship is left ambiguous at the end by Star Trek: Nemesis since the movie cut out a scene where Crusher reveals she’s departing the Enterprise to take a posting at Starfleet Medical.

“The character [had] become matron-like, and it was just weird,” McFadden says. “I was no longer really the love interest of Picard, and that was one of the primary things—I was hired by Gene [Roddenberry] himself as the love interest of Picard. That got changed. And that wasn’t changed by me.”

And if Crusher does return in Picard? “I think that Patrick made a decision at some point that he was opening it up to other relationships in our show, and in the movies, certainly,” McFadden says. “So I can’t imagine that it’s suddenly going to be different, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not a relationship there. Obviously, from all of our scenes, there is a relationship, and that’s great. So who knows? I have no clue, but it would it would be lovely.”

Those who wanted a happier ending for Picard and Crusher should look towards the post-Nemesis Star Trek novel series. In that continuity, Crusher returns to the Enterprise. She and Picard get married, and they have a child. The future of that timeline is in question since Star Trek: Picard is writing a new future of Jean-Luc, but there have been hints that plans are in place to keep it alive in some form.

Would you like to see McFadden returns s Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: Picard? Let us know in the comments.