Jean-Luc Picard’s much-anticipated return to Star Trek was a hit. Sure, Picard had a couple of duff mid-season episodes, but I enjoyed reuniting with The Next Generation‘s Riker, Troi and Data. As the run wrapped, though, there was one big absence that bugged me. Where the hell was Worf?
Michael Dorn’s Klingon Chief of Security was a fan favorite on TNG and Deep Space Nine. In the last episode of the latter show, Worf was named as the Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, though eventually returned to the Enterprise for Star Trek: Nemesis. After that, books and comics have shown him taking over the captaincy of the Enterprise-E and continuing on its voyage of discovery. Since then, Dorn has tried to get a Worf show off the ground, but told interviewers that he’d return on any Trek series if he were given a substantive role.
All of which meant fans got very excited yesterday when the actor posted a new short and grainy clip of himself as the character, which you can see below:
— Michael Dorn (@akaWorf) April 21, 2021
Fans wondered whether this could be a stealth teaser for the second season of Picard or a hint that Dorn’s Worf show had finally been greenlit. But sadly, it’s neither of those.
The clip turns out to be an advert for the game Star Trek: Legends, which launched recently on Apple Arcade and is a mashup of Final Fantasy-style RPG’ing and Star Trek. Worf appears in it, too, and his model strongly resembles the look Dorn has in the video.
It’s sad that an ad for an app is the first we’ve seen of the character in years, but perhaps the positive response and deluge of speculation about his return might convince the head honchos at CBS that there’s room for his solo show in Paramount Plus’ Star Trek lineup.
