April’s bombshell announcement that the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation would be returning for Star Trek: Picard set the fandom ablaze — and today we finally get our first glimpse of their looks in Picard’s third and final season.
Stars Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) and Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) and Star Trek franchise boss Alex Kurtzman took the stage at San Diego Comic Con’s H today to preview the closing chapter of the Star Trek: Picard story, unveiling today’s long-awaited teaser to the packed Hall H crowd.
There’s a whole universe out there. Wherever you go, we go. #StarTrekPicard concludes with Season 3 in 2023. ✨ #StarTrek #StarTrekSDCC pic.twitter.com/UupKQCIFuA
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) July 23, 2022
PICARD: “You’re only as good as those around you.”
LA FORGE: “Those days on the Enterprise… made me a better man, a better father, a better friend.”
SEVEN: “I thought I could inspire people… bring justice to an unjust universe.”
RAFFI: “You have no idea how hard it is to be in this world.”
WORF: “Do not presume to know what I have and have not sacrificed for this.”
TROI: “You have to be willing to go through that door to what’s next.”
RIKER: “There’s a whole universe out there — wherever you go, we go.”
CRUSHER: “Here, in this moment, let’s do what we spent our lives learning to be great at!”
PICARD: “As long as you and your crew remain steadfast, you are never without hope.”
La Forge mentions being a father in his trailer voiceover; as revealed back in June, 2401-era Geordi has two daughters, one of which will be played by LeVar Burton’s real-life daughter Mica Burton.
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Along with this minute-long teaser, a series of character posters for eight of Season 3’s cast also beamed down with portraits of returning Picard leads Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart), Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), along with Beverly Crusher (McFadden), Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), and Worf (Michal Dorn).
The teaser and posters reveal that Seven of Nine’s late-Season-2 field commission to Starfleet captaincy seems to have stuck, as she appears in command red for the final year of the series — and that along with Riker and Troi (seen in Picard Season 1), each returning character continues to serve in Starfleet’s ranks years after we last saw them in Star Trek: Nemesis.
Troi, who was seemingly retired in Season 1’s “Nepenthe,” joins her husband in a return to active duty, and promotions have been earned by Admiral (or Commodore) La Forge, and Worf — who is apparently NOT a captain, per a tweet by Terry Matalas — over the decades since their time on the Enterprise-E.
Notably missing from today’s reveals are Brent Spiner in today’s character spotlights; while the actor remains credited as a series regular for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, his specific role for the upcoming year has not been announced and seems to be a bit of a secret — likely to be revealed sooner to the show’s 2023 return.
Alex Kurtzman called Spiner’s role a “old new character,” perhaps referring to Alton Soong or some other Soong-ish character we’ve previously met. The villain of the season will be female, Kurtzman revealed — and while the Next Gen crew will be “scattered” around the galaxy, one driving storyline will be how Seven of Nine fits into active Starfleet service.
We’ll bring you more on the upcoming season as it breaks!
Star Trek: Picard is currently in post-production on its third and final season, set to debut in early 2023 on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.