Star Trek: Watch John de Lancie Say a Heartfelt Goodbye to Q

Star Trek: Picard‘s second season is over and many of its cast members are saying farewell to the series. John de Lancie, on the other hand, is saying goodbye to a character he originated 35 years ago. Despite previous comments seemingly indicating Q’s presence in Picard’s third and final season, the once omnipotent being seemed to perish in Star Trek: Picard‘s second season finale. Co-showrunner Terry Matalas shared a video of de Lancie taking a bow after filming his final scene as Q. De Lancie recalled something Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry told him when he began filming Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

“Gene Roddenberry, at the time, came up to me and he said, it was a voice behind me, and he said, ‘Oh, you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. And here it is, so many years later. Thank you,” de Lancie says in the video, which you can see below.

Ahead of Star Trek: Picard‘s second season premiere, de Lancie told ComicBook.com that the call to reprise Q surprised him. He said, “I got a call from Terry [Matalas], who’s the executive producer to come in, and he said, ‘Well you were expecting this, weren’t you?’ And I go, ‘No, no, Terry, actually, I wasn’t expecting it. The franchise has done a bunch of movies without me and, I dare say, the Picard series. So no, I was not expecting it. I’m delighted, but I was not expecting it. And he said, ‘Well I just want you to know that when I came on board, the first thing I said was “Q’s coming back.”‘  And I was like, ‘Okay, well here I am.’ So I’m delighted, I’m delighted.”

At the time, he was concerned about returning to the character being unseemly, especially if the writers expected him to dance in a sombrero again. It didn’t take too long for the fears to be put to rest. 

“But those were all sorts of things that I was a little concerned about when I went in to have a chat with them and they allayed my fears almost immediately by saying, ‘We are looking for a different side of this character. It’s a different time. He’s older, wiser, still potentially as dangerous, but there’s an agenda, and the agenda is not just how it affects Picard, but there’s an agenda which is fueled from here,’” de Lancie continued pausing to point at his heart. “And I went, ‘Oh, okay, tell me more, I’m interested.’ So, we talked more about it and I said, ‘Okay, I understand.’ So there’s a part of me that is a little concerned that the expectation is that it’s just going to be more of the same from Next Gen period of time, but audiences have to understand that this is a different world. We are in a different world.”

Star Trek: Picard is streaming now on Paramount+.