It took a long time, but finally, Garrett Wang is back in the Star Trek fold. Fans will seen a ton of Harry Kim on Lower Decks' penultimate installment, which is one of the final Trek episodes set to air before the 2025 TV schedule starts. CinemaBlend recently talked to the actor, who said Harry's return was a long time coming. Wang even alluded to a project that might've shown up sooner.
Mr. Wang was gracious enough to speak to me ahead of "Fissure Quest," which will seemingly rectify one of the ways Star Trek: Voyager did Harry Kim dirty by showing one iteration of the character with a promotion. There are a ton of Harry Kims in this episode, which may make up for the canceled project that would've brought Garrett Wang back to Trek sooner. As for that apparent production, the actor could only speak about it in broad strokes:
I'm gonna say something happened, but then something else happened out of my control. I had no control over it. And that offer was rescinded in a way. That's all I can say.
There's next to zero information to go off there, but I think many Star Trek fans would be interested to hear that all the same. I've advocated for a Voyager-centric movie for years, and other stars, including Kate Mulgrew, have agreed it would be fun. That's not to suggest that was in discussion behind the scenes or not, but I would love to know more about what Wang was apparently offered.
The field is wide open in regard to what Star Trek shows could reveal about where Harry Kim could've appeared, and Garrett Wang has the receipts. He's been keeping an eye on every recent Trek show and told me about his hopes of receiving an invite as each season came and went:
I sat there on bated breath when Picard came out. Season 1 of Picard I said, ‘Could they use Harry here? No. Season 2? Maybe they could use Harry here! No. Season 3, because the whole Seven of Nine inclusion, I was hoping that I would be Mr. Harry of Nine essentially, but they took Seven in a different direction with Michelle Hurd's character. So I kept thinking, ‘Well, that's three options. Three chances for Harry to have been on the card.’ Obviously, Discovery would not have worked. Strange New Worlds [is in] another time period.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Mr. Harry Kim, though I think many, including Jeri Ryan, would've preferred that as opposed to Seven and Chakotay. Picard came and went without bringing back Garrett Wang's character, so he had to remain patient and wait for his next opportunity.
That other opportunity would be Star Trek: Lower Decks, which had already welcomed his Delta Flyers podcast co-host Robert Duncan McNeil as a guest a couple of times. Wang said he'd been waiting a while to be on the animated comedy, but appearing in the penultimate more than makes up for the wait:
Lower Decks came out, and in Season 1, I go, ‘Oh, maybe it'll happen in Season 2. No. 3 [and] 4. So, there are really seven times that I thought Harry could have been introduced but didn't until finally season five. So those nine times are more than dealt with in the fact that we have multiple Harry Kims.
Having multiple Harry Kims is good, especially considering how many times he almost or actually died on Voyager. The fact that Prime Harry is canonically dead and was replaced by a parallel timeline version of himself didn't make my WTF Voyager moments list, but it definitely should have. No doubt Lower Decks will nod to some of Harry's wilder moments in his previous series, as it often does with all guest stars.
As for what the future holds beyond this, I think there's a chance we'll see Garrett Wang return in upcoming Trek shows. With Robert Picardo's EMH joining Starfleet Academy, he could pull up a Holo-Harry, which would lead to a cameo role. (That's a free idea for anyone on the writing staff who wants to take it, assuming they haven't already planned for that.)
Watch Harry Kim back in action on Star Trek: Lower Decks when the episode hits Paramount+ on Thursday. As someone who has seen the episode, I can honestly say it's my favorite episode of the series, and I can't wait to see fellow fans' reactions.
