The Star Trek franchise is going strong on the small screen, with multiple series running on CBS All Access, and new ones already in development. However, the popular franchise is not doing nearly as well on the big screen. Following the three films of the "reboot" series, which saw new actors take on the roles of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest, nobody is quite sure what's next for the films, though several ideas have been floated. It seems certain that there will be new Star Trek films at some point, we just don't know what they'll be about, but Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner thinks that eventually we'll see a reboot version of his series as well.
Speaking with SyFy Wire, Brent Spiner says that he's been a fan of the recent J.J. Abrams produced trilogy of films, and he expects that, at some point down the line, TNG will get the same treatment. According to Spiner...
I've loved the recent movies. I think that sooner or later, they're going to do a reboot, a motion picture version of Next Generation, and cast some young guys in our parts.
While we haven't heard any rumblings of a TNG reboot among the conversations regarding the next Star Trek movie, it's certainly not a crazy idea. TNG was an incredibly popular series, it lasted a lot longer than the original series did, and the characters are so popular that Patrick Stewart is now playing Jean-Luc Picard again in one of those successful CBS All Access series.
And one could easily justify a Next Generation reboot storyline as an offshoot of the most recent movies. In the same way that the events of 2009's Star Trek resulted in an alternate timeline for those new versions of the characters to inhabit, one assumes that several decades later, there are new versions of the Next Generation cast, perhaps slightly alternated by the events of the new timeline.
Of course, this would mean that somebody other than Brent Spiner would need to play Data. The actor admits he might hold a bit of ill will toward whoever took over the part, but that wouldn't stop him from seeing whatever movie they made from the idea. Spiner continues...
Well, of course, I do. But no, I look forward to seeing it. I think it would be cool if they spun our show off.
On the one hand, it will hard to ever see other actors in the roles of Picard, Data, Geordi, and Dr. Crusher. But at the same time, Christ Pine and company did bring something fun and new to their classic characters, and new actors could do the same with TNG. Brent Spiner is probably right. A reboot probably will happen eventually. And it could even be good.
