In a surprise announcement at San Diego Comic Con today, we learned that Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner and Star Trek: Voyager actor Jeri Ryan will be making appearances in the next iteration of the Star Trek franchise, the Patrick Stewart-led Star Trek: Picard which is currently in production and just dropped a big trailer.

Spiner, who played the android Lt. Commander Data for seven years on television — as well as in the four Next Generation feature films, and in a voice cameo during the Enterprise series finale — marks the first of Stewart’s former Trek castmates to join him in the next chapter of the franchise, as Star Trek: Picard returns to the former Enterprise captain some two decades after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

While the actor’s android alter ego was notably killed during the climactic ending of Nemesis — as Spiner felt he could no longer portray the ageless artificial life form after inhabiting the role for nearly 15 years — he did leave behind another member of the Soong-type android ‘family,’ a less-developed model known as B-4 (also played by Spiner).

By the end of the film, though Data has been destroyed, it is hinted that his archived memories live on in B-4, as the prototype android begins to mutter the words to the showtune Data performed at the Riker-Troi wedding from the beginning of the movie.

As for Jeri Ryan, the story of liberated Borg drone Seven of Nine seemed to conclude with Voyager‘s 2001 series finale, “Endgame,” arriving home to Earth with her shipmates to a world she didn’t remember — but after “four glasses of champagne,” she joked after a surprise arrival to the Comic Con stage, she was convinced to join the series and return to the role after nearly twenty years away.

Seven of Nine seems to have loosened up quite a bit since her return from the Delta Quadrant nearly two decades ago, given her demeanor with Picard in the new teaser trailer, and Ryan certainly seems to be falling right back into the part with delight:

Ryan isn’t the only former Borg coming back to Star Trek, however: joining her will be Jonathan Del Arco, the two-time Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star who portrayed Hugh, a young drone who recovered his individuality, in “I, Borg” and the two-part “Descent” episode in the later seasons of the show.

Del Arco said on stage that he wasn’t sure about getting back into the heavy Borg makeup again, but had longtime friend and “Borg mama” Jeri Ryan along for support which helped his concerns.

Finally, while they did not appear in San Diego, series showrunner Michael Chabon revealed that both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis will return as Riker and Troi — both married off and headed for the USS Titan after the adventures in Star Trek: Nemesis — later in the season.

Lastly, we learned today that while originally planned for a “late 2019” arrival, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard is now set for a 2020 debut — but so far it seems like it’ll be worth the wait.

Keep your sensors locked on TrekCore for all the latest Star Trek: Picard news as it drops out of the Nexus!