Viewers of the new season of Star Trek: Picard have been introduced to Vadic, a terrifying new villain who, in the season’s opening episodes, very nearly sent Starfleet legend Jean-Luc Picard to his grave. Perhaps not all fans will be aware that Amanda Plummer, the actor who portrays Vadic, has some existing links to the Star Trek franchise. She is the daughter of Christopher Plummer, the famous actor known to Star Trek fans for his portrayal of General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Shakespeare-obsessed Klingon who nearly destroyed historic peace talks between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.
Christopher Plummer was, of course, a multi-award-winning actor with a celebrated career spanning decades, known for his roles in films as diverse as The Insider, Knives Out, and The Sound of Music. But his daughter is a prolific actor in her own right, with an extensive career that has seen her starring in both stage plays and films such as Pulp Fiction, The Fisher King, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, not to mention television series like Ratched and Hannibal. In 1982, she won a Tony award for her role in the stage play Agnes of God.
Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas wrote the role of Vadic specifically for Plummer, telling TVLine: “I have always had this fascination with Amanda Plummer… I just loved her.” He also promises Vadic will not just be a one-dimensional villain, but instead, in the tradition of many other great Star Trek antagonists, a character who viewers will find “reasons to sympathize with.”
Thanks to the younger Plummer’s fantastic performance, Vadic has just as much screen presence as General Chang and seems set to cause as much trouble for Picard as Chang did for Kirk.