Star Trek: Picard brought back Sir Patrick Stewart as the titular Starfleet legend, and at the same time saw various other The Next Generation stars return alongside him in recurring or guest roles. It wasn’t just a nostalgia ride, however, but boldly moved their characters into emotional places where they had never gone before. In season 1, we reunited with William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Data (Brent Spiner) – who met his final end in the season finale.
Obviously, fans are desperately hoping that more of the old Enterprise-D crew show up in season 2 and beyond. And thankfully, all the evidence is saying that it’s going to happen. Adding fuel to the fire, Stewart himself has revealed that he’s “very hopeful” that more of his former co-stars will feature on the series in time, but only if they can be treated in the same way as, say, Riker and Troi in episode 7, “Nepenthe.”
“In meetings when we talked about bringing in members of the Next Generation crew, that was one of the things I was most passionate about, which was not only should Picard have changed during the 18 years that had passed, but the same has to be applied to Counselor Troi, to Commander Riker, to whoever it is. And by the way, I am very hopeful we will see more of The Next Generation crew before we say goodbye to Picard. And that is just what they did, and there is no better example than the episode [“Nepenthe”].”
“Nepenthe” caught up with the married couple on the eponymous planet, where we discovered that the pair had retired from Starfleet after their son, Thaddeus, contracted a fatal illness, and settled on Nepenthe for his final few months. They now live there with young daughter Kestra. Riker got a chance to ride into battle one last time in the finale, though, when he led a Starfleet armada against the Romulans to save Jean-Luc’s hide.
So, which other TNG characters could be next? Well, it’s a fact that Whoopi Goldberg will be back as Guinan, as Stewart made a very public offer to her to appear on Picard. Meanwhile, LeVar Burton has admitted that he’s had talks to reprise Geordi LaForge. And more from Riker seems pretty likely, as well, according to Frakes.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 is currently being written remotely so it should end up arriving on CBS All Access sometime next year.
