Patrick Stewart has revealed the dream scenario in which he would reprise his iconic role from Star Trek: The Next Generation. While Stewart is still basking in the critical plaudits - and a possible Oscar nomination - for Logan, one of his most iconic roles still follows him around on promotional events. The character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show and movies, is synonymous with the actor and brought him global recognition. Unsurprisingly he is still regularly questioned as to whether he would return to the role, and the most recent interview with Stewart drew an interesting response from him and a mouth-watering stipulation.
Stewart has a rich theatrical background with the Royal Shakespeare Company and when casting for The Next Generation started in 1986, he was reportedly considered for the role of Data, before he ultimately sat in the Captain's Chair on the USS Enterprise-D. He played Picard from the premiere of the TV series in 1987, right up to the last Next Generation movie Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. Throughout that time, he consistently supplied hugely emotional and dramatic scenes both on TV and in the theaters. Even with all the variations of Star Trek that now exist, Picard is still considered by many to be the best Captain ever.
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Two years ago when Stewart was previously asked if he would ever return to the Enterprise again, he pointed to his age and declared that it was extremely unlikely that he would reprise the role. However during an interview with Variety, the actor gave a slightly different response, and dropped some intriguing terms-of-engagement for his return:
"Oh, lord. I cannot think of another instance in which that might happen. My feeling is I hung up the space suit and left all that behind a long time ago. Maybe if someone came up with a brilliant idea, I’d do it. One thing that might interest me would be to bring all the existing casts of 'Star Trek' from the last 50 years together for one big story."
Whilst that is admittedly wish-fulfillment and the stars would have to align in major way for that to actually occur, it does show that the actor would be more than willing to don the Starfleet insignia if the right material and circumstance were to happen. Although Stewart is now 77 years old, his brilliant performance in Logan still proves that he can carry a weighty role in a superhero or a sci-fi film, and bring some real emotion to it.
The sheer amount of wrangling that it would take to produce a crossover of Trek crews currently is almost certainly mind-boggling. With the J.J. Abrams timeline currently in force for the movies, and Star Trek: Discovery going down its own path on TV screens, it seems very unlikely that crews from Deep Space Nine or Voyager would be joining anytime soon. That said, the recent surprising news that Quentin Tarantino is joining the Star Trek universe certainly shows that nothing is impossible for the franchise. Many fans would love to see Stewart as Picard again, and currently it looks like he's open to it with the right offer. As far-fetched as it seems at the moment, it would be awesome for Tarantino or someone else to 'make it so'.
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Source: Variety