Star Trek: Picard didn’t just bring back Sir Patrick Stewart as the eponymous Jean-Luc, as the first season of the CBS All Access show also found room to feature the returns of Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Brent Spiner (Data), as well – not to mention Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan. It feels like there’s almost a promise, then, that the rest of the Enterprise-D crew will eventually turn up on the show, too.
Sure enough, we’ve heard from several TNG stars that they could appear in season 2 and now we can add another to that ever-growing list. While speaking to TrekMovie.com ahead of her virtual appearance at GalaxyCon this weekend, Gates McFadden – who played Dr. Beverly Crusher throughout the TNG era – teased that she may reprise her role in Picard. When asked if this is on the cards, she said there’s a “good chance” it could happen.
“Well, I don’t know. There’s a good chance, let’s put it that way. But I have no contract signed.”
Early on in the show’s lifespan, Dr. Crusher was very much positioned as Picard’s love interest, but this was dialed all the way back as TNG progressed. So, you might say that their relationship needs some resolution. Is this something McFadden thinks could occur if she did return on Picard? The actress isn’t sure, but she hopes that it would be addressed.
“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. 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 our 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.”
She also opened up to TrekMovie.com that she isn’t exactly a massive fan of how her character arc progressed across Next Generation, indicating that she thinks it betrayed creator Gene Roddenberry’s original vision for her role.
“The character [had] become matron-like, and it was just weird. 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.”
Star Trek: Picard season 2 has been delayed, but it remains a top priority for CBS.