Patrick Stewart On Why He Returned, Will He Be In Uniform & Will He Do A Second Season?

As the 90-minute panel wound down it was time for the cast of the new Star Trek: Picard series to do the routine post-panel interviews.

As the main star of the show, we delve into what Sir Patrick Stewart had to say on his return to his iconic role, what brought him back and what we can expect from Picard.

In an interview with TV line when asked if he sees this as a sequel to TNG Stewart was keen to say to him it did not feel like it was, saying:

“I don’t see it as a sequel. That word doesn’t resonate for me. I see it as part of the growth of the whole franchise,”

We’ve not just set it in the future, but we have carefully set it 18 – 20 years actually in the future.

We have aged in the same way the show has aged, so we’re bring to it all that process and the incidents and events and calamities of the last 18 – 20 years.”

When asked if the show will feature many of his former castmates and if Picard is still in contact with them (besides the ones we know Data, Riker and Troi) Stewart went on to say:

Answering if Picard is still in contact with his former crew his reply was:

“Not a lot no”

Expanding on if he wanted to bring more of his old crew into the show as Stewart himself has been playing a key role in the show’s development, he was clear that he did not want to make Next Generation

“There was hours of discussions as to who and for how long and what involvement they should be because I know that our lovely fan base would see the crew of the Enterprise all back, but, No! that’s never going to happen, but there are encounters, some of which have been shot and some that are only in the planning stage”

(CBS) Picard Is Not Content And Is Wishing For The Old Days

Hoping for more seasons, Stewart was keen to add that we should not just expect his former crew but other characters that they have encountered before that might pop up in the show further down the line adding:

“But hopefully we will have more than one season and there will be other opportunities and apart from the principal cast of Next Gen, there were other characters that we encountered at different times that also might show up again”

Until this series, Patrick Stewart has always been hesitant to get back into the Star Trek world, when asked what it was and what was it coming to this project that he did not want to do, Stewart replied:

“I did strongly make the point that I did not want to be in a uniform, at all and, I spoke strongly about that”

So with that said it does that mean we will never get to see him don a Starfleet uniform again, well not quite, he went on to say:

“I have just made myself look slightly foolish by insisting that in the end of next weeks work I will be in a uniform”

So does this mean he will be back in Starfleet by then end of the series, well not quite as he goes on to say:

“I will be in a uniform because it is a flashback, and I said in order to have the right sort of context I need to be in a uniform.”

So yes we will see him in uniform again but not in the way a lot of fans are hoping for, which will upset many…

(CBS) “Engage”

Moving over to an interview with IGN, Stewart was asked “why bring back Picard now

Stewart had this to say:

“Because I said yes” [laughs] nearly 20 years have passed and we are all, thank you, alive still and the story has become more complicated, darker and diverse, than it was in the days of next generation, and the world has changed, and you know what the world has changed, and is changing in terrifying ways right now, and this is one thing the new show touches upon now.

I do not want to make out that it is a political show, but it always had that element contemporary society being commented upon and that is what we are doing in this show.”

Moving on the host asks whether the ghost of Data haunts Jean Luc to which Stewart replies:

“Well Jean Luc carries a load of guilt about how data died, and he [points to Brent Spiner] sacrificed himself for his captain, it was a sudden and urgent and snap decision, but that has weight heavily on Picard all the years since.

It becomes one of the central motivators of what Jean Luc does in this new series”

Joined midway through the interview by new cast member Santiago Cabrera, the host then asks Patrick Stewart “what is it like working with a new crew as opposed to the old crew you had in next-gen

“It is only a crew in a sense, you must not think of it as a crew like the Enterprise, we are NOT Starfleet”

Expanding on how he sees his new crew he says:

“We are in a sense renegades, we are acting independently, but yeah Santiago is the captain”

When asked if there will be a second season, and if he is willing, Stewart is quick to say:

“Absolutely”

The more we hear about his return, the more hyped we are…

Watch the Comic-Con trailer for Star Trek Picard

Star Trek: Picard releases in early 2020 on CBS All Access in the United States, on Space in Canada, and on Amazon Prime Video throughout the rest of the world.


Read More About Star Trek: Picard

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