A couple of years ago, Star Trek fans thought Patrick Stewart had long put the franchise behind him. And then Star Trek: Picard was announced, with Jean-Luc’s big comeback finally airing earlier this year. The British thespian has previously opened up about how he only wanted to come back to Trek if he could do something different, and in a new interview he’s revealed what goals he hoped to achieve in the CBS All Access show.
In Variety’s Actors on Actors issue, Stewart and The Witcher star Henry Cavill asked each other questions about their respective projects. When questioned by Cavill about how he hoped to evolve the character of Picard in the series, Stewart explained that X-Men movie Logan was his touchstone for what he wanted the show to be like.
“What I did want — to the writers, I cited the movie Logan that I did with Hugh Jackman, the last of the X-Men movies. That movie found the two of us in conditions that were totally unlike anything that we experienced before, and it was thrilling for both of us because we were continually being challenged. I said to my fellow producers, ‘I would like the same thing.’ The contrast between the Picard that I had been in Next Generation, and how the years that have passed had changed him. He was now angry, moody, guilty, sad, lonely, which he had never been before.”
We’ve heard before that Stewart was a key part of mapping out the storyline for the first season, being very present in the writers room in the development stages on Picard to make sure it was going to be as good as he wanted it to be. And in terms of pushing Jean-Luc into new emotional dimensions, he definitely succeeded. Like the actor says above, we got to witness the character show a range of different sides that we never saw of him when he was captain of the Enterprise-D/E.
There were some places Stewart didn’t think Picard should go, however. As he revealed to TV Guide, he drew the line at having Jean-Luc start swearing, as he was somewhat alarmed to learn that the series would feature some very un-Trek-like strong language. As for his goals for season 2, the star’s teased that he wants to dig deeper into the interpersonal relationships between the La Sirena crew.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 has been delayed, but it remains a top priority for CBS.