Wil Wheaton Is Done Acting Unless He’s Wesley
When Star Trek: The Next Generation first premiered, Wil Wheaton was one of the more controversial actors simply because many fans found his Wesley Crusher character to be overly annoying and precocious. Over time, however, fans learned to love Wheaton and he came to embrace the franchise, making cameos in NuTrek shows like Picard and Lower Decks while also serving as the host of The Ready Room. In fact, the actor’s love for this franchise is so great that he confirmed at the 51st Annual Saturn Awards that even though he’s done acting, he will always show up for roles in Star Trek.
Wheaton And Wesley Became Inseparable
For those who have followed Wil Wheaton’s career over the years, the fact that he is done with acting outside of Star Trek shouldn’t be surprising. After The Next Generation helped make him famous, he briefly left acting altogether to work on the Video Toaster 4000 (no, really). After that, he spent half a decade studying acting before throwing himself back into the wonderful world of Hollywood.
After Star Trek
Once he returned to acting, Wil Wheaton had a very diverse career, appearing in everything from indie darling films like The Good Things to fan-favorite sci-fi shows like Eureka. He memorably starred as himself in the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and at one point even hosted his own brief-lived SyFy show called The Wil Wheaton Project. However, even before that show was unceremoniously canceled, it was clear that the actor was embracing plenty of other opportunities outside traditional television and film roles.
Voice Acting
For example, Wil Wheaton became a prolific voice actor, loaning his vocal talents to shows like Teen Titans and podcasts like Welcome to Night Vale. Speaking of Wheaton’s voice, he is also a veteran narrator of audiobooks, including Ready Player One and its sequel. He has been a voice actor in games such as I Expect You to Die 2: The Spy and the Liar, and he even created the web series Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana and memorably starred as Felicia Day’s antagonist in the web series The Guild.
He’s Got More On His Plate
What does all of this mean in the context of Wil Wheaton’s declaration that he is done with acting outside of Star Trek? The truth is that the actor has found steady work and achieved major success in a wide variety of other endeavors outside the kinds of film and TV roles that originally made him famous. Like many creative people, the former actor discovered new talents and passions as time went on and decided to fully embrace these opportunities rather than stick to the more traditional acting path.
However, as Wil Wheaton is quick to point out, he has never lost his love for Star Trek, and he is always willing to work with the franchise in almost any capacity. Since its second season, he has served as host of the Star Trek aftershow The Ready Room, and his energy and enthusiasm always manage to keep both guests and audiences entertained. Similarly, fans were excited to see the return of Wesley Crusher in Picard, and while that second season was very muddled, it was fulfilling getting closure for Wesley’s arc as a Traveler.
More Wesley?
Does this mean we are likely to see more of Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher in the future? He didn’t indicate how likely that was, but of his return to acting, he said “I have learned that we should never say absolutely not.” When it comes to a franchise that both killed and resurrected the godlike being Q in the space of a single season, we think Wheaton’s right: we should never say never to the idea of seeing Wesley Crusher again.
With any luck, the next time we see him, the character will get a proper reunion with space mom Beverly Crusher. If nothing else, we’d love to see Wesley’s interactions with half-sibling Jack Crusher. Those two have plenty to talk about, and Jack would be the last person in the universe to blurt out the iconic phrase Wil Wheaton grew so sick of hearing: “shut up, Wesley!”
