A joke by Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in Star Trek: Picard season 1 foresaw the series' marked change of direction in season 2. Riker, along with his wife, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Data (Brent Spiner), were the main Star Trek: The Next Generation guest stars in Star Trek: Picard season 1. The entire TNG cast will reunite in Star Trek: Picard season 3, which will be the show's third format change in as many seasons, and isn't expected to be focused on Romulans.
Riker's wisecrack to Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: Picard season 1, episode 8, "Nepenthe," was a funny rebuke of its Romulan-centric story. Will asked Jean-Luc if he recalls what Riker told him when Picard was "flying off to Romulus, to plan the Great Supernova Rescue." Picard quoted his former Number One verbatim: "'So you want to be ass-deep in Romulans for the rest of your life?" Riker's funny line turned out to be prophetic because after Star Trek: Picard season 1 was over, it abandoned its Romulan story in favor of season 2's time travel plot. Picard season 2 even killed off it's main Romulan character, Elnor (Evan Evagora), who has been written off the show despite being resurrected.
Why Picard Season 2 Was So Different From Season 1
Star Trek: Picard season 2 saw a behind-the-scenes creative regime change as Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas replaced Michael Chabon as showrunners. Chabon masterminded Star Trek: Picard season 1's story about the Zhat Vash, the Borg, and synthetics, and he even wrote elaborate explanations for the show's new Romulan mythology. However, Matalas and Goldsman decided season 2 would answer the pivotal question about why Jean-Luc chose not to have a lasting romance, and they employed Q (John de Lancie), Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching), and time travel to tell their story.
Star Trek: Picard season 1's Romulan story is commendable for following up on the Romulan supernova introduced by J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 2009. The destruction of Romulus is a galaxy-changing event, and it became integral to why Picard left the USS Enterprise-E, became an Admiral, and tried to help save the Romulans before he quit Starfleet to protest the United Federation of Planets abandoning their mission. But Picard season 2's new showrunners were also right that the Romulan storyline had played itself out, and season 2's new TNG-centric direction proved more popular overall with audiences.
Riker & Picard Will Have Conflict In Season 3
Will Riker is expected to have a big role in Star Trek: Picard season 3, and Jonathan Frakes has teased that Riker and Admiral Picard will butt heads. Moreover, there will be more conflict between the former crew of the USS Enterprise-D that wasn't allowed in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This also makes sense; the TNG icons are now decades past serving together under Picard, and they all have vast experience and strong individual points of view. As a successful starship Captain, Riker may have solutions Picard overlooks even if he outranks Will as an Admiral.
One important carryover from Star Trek: Picard season 1 is that Riker is able to joke with Picard and point out when Jean-Luc may be making a mistake. Given everything that happened to Picard in-universe, Riker's point about getting involved with the Romulans turned out to be prophetic, because it led to the ruin of Picard's Starfleet career for 15 years. Riker's witty and savvy quip about the Romulans seemed to prophetically anticipate the format change Star Trek: Picard would undergo in season 2, and season 3 will have the biggest change yet by reuniting the TNG cast.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres February 16, 2023, on Paramount+.