Patrick Stewart “Warmed Up” To TNG’s Cast Returning For Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Explains Showrunner
Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas breaks down why Patrick Stewart wanted TNG’s cast back for season 3 on The 7th Rule podcast.
Star Trek: Picard season 3’s lauded reunion of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s cast happened because Patrick Stewart “warmed up” to the idea, explains showrunner Terry Matalas. Originally, Stewart didn’t want Star Trek: Picard to retread TNG, and making a very different show was what sold Sir Patrick to play Jean-Luc Picard once more. However, as more and more familiar faces from TNG appeared in Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 and 2, Stewart saw the wisdom in reuniting the crew of the USS Enterprise-D in season 3.
Appearing on The 7th Rule podcast for a fascinating retrospective on Star Trek: Picard season 3, showrunner Terry Matalas detailed to hosts Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk how Patrick Stewart changed his mind about the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming back for Picard season 3. Check out his quote and The 7th Rule video, with Matalas’ comments starting at the 4:24 time stamp, below:
Right when I got in from season 2, I was like, “All right, let’s bring ‘em all back”… They said, “No, we’re never going to do that.” But along the way, I think Patrick warmed up to the idea. The more his friends came back to the show, Jonathan [and] Marina came back, de Lancie came back, and Whoopi came back… Those days on set were so warm and so happy for him, that he started to say by the end, “We gotta have everybody.”
And then, it came time for me, and I said, “Let’s do it. Let’s make this the goodbye…” And so, that was it. That was sort of the North Star that we followed. And Patrick was like, “I think it’s time.” There’s limited money. I mean, it was a big budget show, but it was a hair too ambitious in some ways, what I do. And so that required we’d cut certain things, and some of the other cast had to go away to make room to have the old cast back. So we couldn’t do everything, but damn, I tried.
Reuniting TNG’s Cast Made Star Trek: Picard Season 3 A Must-See Event
There’s no question that reuniting the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation made Star Trek: Picard season 3 a must-see event for Star Trek fans and even general audiences. The return of the USS Enterprise-D at the end of Picard season 3 was icing on the cake, and Terry Matalas’ instincts were correct that the fans wanted a farewell for TNG that was worthy of their status as Star Trek icons. Patrick Stewart has even graciously admitted, “I was wrong,” and is obviously as pleased with the results of putting the band back together in Picard season 3 as fans and critics are.
Bringing back the TNG cast did have the cost of letting go of many of the actors from Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 and 2. Even with the impressive budget of Picard season 3, which was essentially a 10-hour TNG movie that saw its finale screened in IMAX, Terry Matalas laments that he still “couldn’t do everything” he wanted. But most fans would agree that the epic story Matalas told, seeing the TNG cast reunite in Star Trek: Picard season 3, along with appearances by Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), Moriarty (Daniel Davis), Tuvok (Tim Russ), and recreating the beloved USS Enterprise-D exceeded most hopes. With any luck, Terry Matalas can continue what he started by Paramount greenlighting his spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy.
