After a lengthy delay, Star Trek: Picard season 2 is finally in production and we already know that John de Lancie is returning as Q, which has got fans wondering which other familiar faces from his past Jean-Luc might encounter in his next batch of adventures. Of course, LeVar Burton is a prime contender for a comeback as Geordi La Forge, and he’s now teased that it might just be about to happen.
Burton spoke to Newsweek about his campaign to get himself appointed the next host of Jeopardy!, and obviously the question of his Star Trek return came up. First of all, the actor and TV personality revealed that he wouldn’t want to reprise his most famous character full-time, but he’d be happy to play La Forge again in a guest or maybe recurring capacity.
“I’m really happy with where Geordi sits in my life,” he said. “And even though I feel like it would be it would be fun to revisit him now and again, living in his skin every day, I don’t necessarily need to go back to doing that.”
Burton then went on to point out how Riker and Troi’s guest role in Picard season 1 was the perfect way to bring back old favorites while also allowing the new show to stand on its own. And, seeing how that went well, he suspects the producers will want to follow it up with other characters in season 2.
“I think they’ve successfully done that,” he added. “And I know that for the first season, there was a strong desire to not continually have people reference back to Next Gen… I think that they’re well aware of how successful having Jonathan [Frakes] and Marina [Sirtis] in season one was.”
When he was specifically asked by Newsweek if he could be on the billing himself this season, Burton remained tight-lipped but said just enough to get fans’ hopes up. “Maybe,” he responded when asked about the possibility, adding: “I mean, I think the time period of Picard is contemporaneous.”
In April of last year, Burton got a little more talkative on the subject, admitting that he’s had discussions with the producers over a potential return. So, it seems like we can be quietly optimistic that Jean-Luc will reunite with his former chief engineer in Star Trek: Picard season 2, which will also feature Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan and probably more of Jonathan Frakes as Riker. Expect it to hit Paramount Plus sometime in 2022.