Sir Patrick Stewart had some conditions for Star Trek: Picard return: ‘He took a massive leap of faith’
Sir Patrick Stewart will reprise his role as Jean Luc-Picard in new series Star Trek: Picard, but he had some conditions for his return.
The 79-year-old actor last played the captain in film Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, after becoming an iconic character in TV series The Next Generation.
Stewart, however, didn’t take his return lightly – with Star Trek: Picard executive producer Alex Kurtzman explaining how the actor wanted to make sure the new series was worthy of the character’s legacy.
Speaking to TrekCore, Kurtzman said: ‘You know, we feel a tremendous responsibility to the fans who have loved [the Picard character], and Patrick himself, who took a massive leap of faith with us in choosing to come back and play Picard [after] he said he was done forever.
‘He also said, “I want to make sure if I come back, if you loved The Next Generation, you’ll feel we’re honouring it, but this is a very different experience.” This is a very different experience.
‘It looks incredibly different, the kind of storytelling is different, but if you’re someone who’s never watched it at all, it’s been built for you to come into it and get to be dropped into this very emotional story about this captain who’s in the late stage of his life and is dealing with the sum total of all of his choices.’
Luckily, after showing the first five episodes to Patrick, it seems they’ve managed to fulfil his criteria.
Kurtzman added: ‘We have now started showing it to the studio, and they’re thrilled with it, so that gave us a lot more confidence that we’ve hit the mark.
‘We’ve now watched five episodes with Patrick and he’s thrilled with it too. Because he was so happy with it, it makes us feel like it honoured what we promised.’
Star Trek: Picard will span ten episodes, and sees Jean Luc-Picard retired after years as a star fleet captain, living out life on his vineyard.
Star Trek: Picard releases Friday 24 January on Amazon Prime Video.
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