Why Seven of Nine Didn't Cameo In Star Trek Nemesis
Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine received an offer to appear in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, but actress Jeri Ryan had logical reasons to refuse. Instead, the cameo went to Kate Mulgrew, who reprised her role as Admiral Kathryn Janeway. The final film headlined by the cast ofStar Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Nemesis saw Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) face his clone, Shinzon (Tom Hardy), the new Praetor of the Romulan Empire, and it ended with the death of Commander Data (Brent Spiner).
Jeri Ryan joined Star Trek: Voyager as former Borg Seven of Nine at the start of season 4, and her cool, catsuit-wearing character instantly caught the attention of Trekkers. Seven of Nine quickly became the face of Star Trek: Voyager, which Paramount considered as the successor to TNG as the flagship Star Trek series. Seven remained aboard Voyager until it returned home to Earth in the Voyager series finale, which aired in 2001. Afterward, Ryan took on a role in David E. Kelley's lawyer series, Boston Public. Meanwhile, production on the newest TNG movie was starting up and Paramount contacted Star Trek's executive producer Rick Berman and told him "put Jeri Ryan in [Star Trek: Nemesis]."
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowAs Ryan herself told TrekWeb in 2001, she was hesitant to reprise Seven of Nine so soon after she got her new job on Boston Public:
The most interesting part of Ryan's explanation of her movie offer was her saying that she would have needed "a couple of months" to shoot Star Trek: Nemesis, which indicates that, originally, there could have been a larger role in mind for Seven of Nine. But Ryan also logically pointed out that Seven had never interacted with the TNG cast, so it doesn't make sense why she would be in Nemesis. When Ryan turned down the offer, Paramount came back with the suggestion that she appear in a walk-on cameo anyway.
As Ryan recalls: "[Paramount] understood [why she refused the offer], but then [Rick Berman] was like, "Do you want to do a cameo at the [Riker and Troi] wedding?" And I was like "No, if I don’t want to be in the movie, why would I want to do a cameo?" Ryan was right that it would make even less sense for Seven of Nine to randomly pop up at the wedding of Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), two characters Seven had never even met. It was clear to Ryan, as she summarized, that Paramount just wanted to take advantage of Seven's popularity and "plug her in [the movie] just to plug her in."
Ultimately, Star Trek: Nemesis got its Voyager cameo when Kate Mulgrew appeared as Admiral Janeway and told Picard to meet Shinzon on Romulus. However, the fact that Janeway was promoted to Admiral and then literally gave Captain Picard his marching orders also didn't sit well with many Trekkers. Meanwhile, the idea that Seven of Nine would meet Jean-Luc Picard on screen remained for almost 20 years and that TNG/Voyager dream crossover was finally realized when Jeri Ryan joined the cast ofStar Trek: Picard, which has turned out to be a bigger hit than Star Trek: Nemesis ever was.
Source: screenrant.com