Seven of Nine's surprising Star Trek: Picard relationship emerged from a comic-con, according to star Michelle Hurd. Fans were delighted to learn Patrick Stewart would reprise his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard in a brand new Star Trek series, and after two years of anticipation, it finally premiered earlier this year. Picard picks up with Jean-Luc in the newest chapter of his life following his retirement from Starfleet. However, it isn't long before Picard gets involved in a new galactic conflict, meets a new crew, and gets a brand new ship.
Already, Picard has seen the returns of several familiar faces from across Star Trek history, include Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine. Once a fan favorite character on Star Trek: Voyager, Seven seemingly joined Picard's crew at the end of the first season and is poised to stick around for season 2. Seven's stint on Picard allowed fans to learn what had happened to her following the end of Voyager, and it also led to a surprising development: Seven is gay (or bisexual, when considering her previous relationships) and has formed a romantic connection with Raffi Musiker (Hurd), a former Starfleet officer who is part of Picard's crew.
Screen Rant recently sat down with Hurd and broke down some of the biggest moments from Picard season 1, including Raffi's new relationship with Seven. When asked if she knew about the development ahead of time, Hurd revealed the writers actually came up with the idea after seeing her and Ryan at a comic-con together. Hurd said:
Michelle Hurd: We kind of knew it was coming. Our writers are so phenomenal. The whole world of Star Trek is that all of our writers and producers and everyone involved is receptive to the world, right? To what's happening in the world, and what's happening to that, and they put it in the scripts. And I will say that we were all at a comic con and Jeri [Ryan] and I were just hanging out, and one of our cast members took a picture of us. We were both looking good, whatever, and [the photo] goes back to our producers and writers and literally, you could just see them looking at that picture and they were like [makes whispering sounds]. It just made them go, "Wait! This could be a possibility". So they sort of floated it to us and we were like, "all good!"
Fans were just as taken aback by Seven and Raffi forming a romantic relationship, partially because the two hadn't interacted much before the final reveal. They were left with a glimpse of the two women holding hands, and the hope is that Picard season 2 will expand upon their bond. There were hints throughout Picard season 1 that both Seven and Raffi had an interest in women, but it wasn't until the very end that it became clear.
However, it's clear now that the writers had Seven and Raffi's relationship in mind even before their finale moment, all thanks to Hurd and Ryan bonding at a convention. The lack of major development between Raffi and Seven would appear to suggest the writers didn't plan for it to happen until the end of the season, but that evidently isn't the case. Regardless of how it came about, though, Picard season 2 has an opportunity to really build their connection into something truly special. Hopefully the writers won't let that chance to go waste.