Star Trek: Picard Season 2 isn't expected until 2022, but has been chugging along with filming so that fans won't have to wait longer to see it. John de Lancie is one of those actors and will be reprising his role as the iconic character, Q, to likely give Picard a heap of trouble. The actor is excited to be back in the franchise, so much so that he may have inadvertently spoiled a major return in a message to a fan.
Star Trek fans noticed John de Lancie's recent Cameo to a fan (via Inverse), which made a deliberate mention of a character who we know is not on Star Trek: Picard by the end of Season 1. Read the message below, and continue on for what this all may mean.
I am on the next season of Picard. And Sir Patrick and I have had a whole bunch of scenes, which we thoroughly enjoyed working with each other. I have got one coming up with Data on this coming Tuesday. So yeah, we are moving along.
The fact that John de Lancie would have a scene with Brent Spiner isn't too odd, considering he also plays Altan Soong (son of Data's creator Noonian Soong) in Star Trek: Picard. With that said, the actor specifically said that Q had a scene with Data coming up, which is odd, because Data officially died at the end of Season 1. Though the character was believed to have died during the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, his consciousness survived and was held by Soong until Picard granted Data's wish of being shut off permanently.
If Brent Spiner is back as Data, this could confirm that Star Trek: Picard will travel to the past in Season 2. Q (who has the power to do it) has done this type of thing before to Picard, most notably in the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Data appearing alongside Q and Picard could mean the season will revisit that era of Star Trek, which would open the door to more exciting cameos by other past actors.
With that being said, it's unclear who would and wouldn't be available to shoot out of the former cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Actor LeVar Burton flat out confirmed he would not appear in Season 2, and actress Gates McFadden hinted to CinemaBlend that while something may have been in the works, the production shutdowns of 2020 put everything up in the air, and plans were changed. Could Spiner portraying Data mean that the show was able to do a tiny TNG reunion after all, or will this be a pared-down version of what was once a much bigger idea for a time-travel episode?
It's also completely possible that de Lancie was mistaken, so Star Trek fans shouldn't get their hopes up just yet.
Star Trek: Picard is slated to arrive on Paramount+ in 2022. For more on the franchise, read up on our recent interview with Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan and how his series could actually crossover with Picard.
