Star Trek’s Best Captain Wants Another Movie
Once more unto the breach?
The last time there was a Trek feature film that wasn’t a part of the Kelvin Timeline, it was 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, which also happened to be the last time Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard until the revival series Star Trek: Picard. While fans might be under the impression that Picard will be Stewart’s last rodeo in the franchise, apparently the 82-year-old actor is hoping it isn’t the end of his time as his signature character. In fact, he wants another movie.
As Comic Book reports, at the San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, a fan at a Star Trek panel asked Patrick Stewart if he wanted to make another film focusing on the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart answered, “Yes is the answer to that, bluntly. I think that would be a very interesting and exciting and worthwhile thing to achieve.” Trek’s TV franchise head Alex Kurtzman seemed to want to temper any expectations, interjecting, “I think that in some ways season three is that. But of course, I mean, look, if you guys love it, let’s see what happens.”
If for no other reason, both Stewart’s answer and Kurtzman‘s subsequent are interesting in that they may have unintentionally spoiled Picard‘s third and final season; or at the very least, taken a possible ending off the table. With both the actor and his character advancing in age, some Star Trek fans are likely speculating that Patrick Stewart’s story in Picard will end with the titular captain’s death (hopefully, a more heroic one than his predecessor suffered in 1994’s Star Trek: Generations). But if both Stewart and Kurtzman are willing to humor the possibility of a new TNG movie then Picard’s death seems unlikely. Sure, they could always resurrect him, as they did with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, but would they want to spend an entire movie on bringing a character back to life? Again?
If another Star Trek movie is in the cards for Patrick Stewart, it would almost certainly be his last feature entry in the saga. At 82 years old, Stewart is now 21 years older than William Shatner was when the latter made his final turn as the leading man of a Trek film in 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Shatner returned for a smaller role in Generations, and that film also marked Stewart’s first big screen appearance as Jean-Luc Picard.
Largely because the portrayal of Captain Kirk’s death was poorly received, Star Trek: Generations remains the least favorite Patrick Stewart led Trek movie for many fans, though 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact made up for it in more ways than one. Bringing the popular villains the Borg front and center, First Contact earned a worldwide gross of $146 million — more than any previous Trek film, and its place at the top remained safe until the release of 2009’s Star Trek. Both the critical and commercial successes of the TNG era films dropped with each subsequent film, until the dreary returns of Nemesis — $67 million, only $7 million over the production budget — put the film franchise in a coma.
