Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner, Michael Dorn Explain Worf's Pacifism

Star Trek fans weren't exactly thrilled when they learned that Worf was getting a big change for his return in Star Trek: Picard Season 3. As one of the early Picard Season 3 trailers revealed, Worf has entered a phase of pacifism in his older years – a code of non-violence that couldn't be more ill-timed, as Jean-Luc Picard and his former Enterprise crew are being hunted by the villain Vadic (Amanda Plummer), who commands the mighty warship The Shrike. 

In recent promotional talks at the TCAs, Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas and Worf actor Michael Dorn addressed Worf's change to pacifism, and why they feel it makes sense for the character at this point in his arc. 

First things first, though: Terry Matalas made it very clear that despite the line we heard in the trailer, Worf will NOT be avoiding the fight(s) coming his way:  "Well, I think it's important that he's not really pacifist," Terry Matalas clarified. "He prefers pacifism, but he does have a giant anime-sized sword."

As you can see in images like the one above from Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Worf will, indeed, be carrying an "anime-sized sword" with him into battle, so it'd be silly to think he was lugging it around to not ever use it. Or that a props department made that awesome blade just for decoration. 

At the same time, Michael Dorn did say that he wanted to Worf to have evolved as a character since the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. After all, Dorn did years of deep-dive dramatic work exploring Worf's search for identity, as a Klingon raised by humans, who enrolled as a Starfleet officer. Proving he was above the stereotypes of Klingons as angry, killer, and savages was a big part of Worf's story – and where else would that path lead but to Worf trying to lead a life where he rarely uses violence at all?

"He's always been looking and searching through The Next Generation, Deep Space [Nine], and the movies for who he is," Dorn explained."And that's the one thing I wanted to impart to [the writers and producers]."

That all said: there's a clear metaphor here where Worf is an older man, and like older (human) men he's more dignified and reserved than when he was a young hothead. But "old man strength" is a thing for a reason, as Worf's foes may learn... 

"You'll find, even in his introduction, it's the least passive version of him," Matalas joked.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will premiere on February 16th on Paramount+.