As we wait until more upcoming Star Trek shows finally hit the 2025 TV schedule for streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, there's something to celebrate related to one of the franchise's beloved stars. LeVar Burton recently shared he's celebrating a major anniversary milestone with his wife, Stephanie Cozart, and his picture from his wedding day with The Next Generation cast is amazing.
October isn't just a time to celebrate Halloween, it's when LeVar Burton married his wife. The former Picard actor made a post to commemorate the event and uploaded a photo that features her, as well as his beloved castmates:
32 years ago today I made the best decision of my life and married @StephanieCozart. Happy Anniversary, Sweetie. Even though we are on opposite sides of the country today our love endures! ♥️♥️♥️ pic.twitter.com/2m5p62LfCpOctober 3, 2024
From left to right, we see Jonathan Frakes, his wife Genie Francis, Patrick Stewart, the newlyweds, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, and Brent Spiner. Maybe it's because I had seen all of them fairly recently in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, but it's wild to see the entire cast out of costume and looking much younger. I'm not at all used to seeing Michael Dorn out of prosthetics, and it's almost as WTF-worthy as some of TNG's wilder moments.
Star Trek readers will no doubt clock that Wil Wheaton is not featured in this picture, though we don't know whether he was at the wedding or not. It is worth noting that he had left The Next Generation as a series regular by 1992, with just two appearances in Season 5 in "The Game" and "The FIrst Duty." This might be a reason why he's not in the picture or present at the wedding, but we can only speculate.
After searching around, I did manage to find more info about LeVar Burton's big day, and it was from his former Picard co-star and daughter, Mica Burton. Burton posted some more photos from this day back in 2016 and noted that Stewart, Frakes, Dorn, and Spiner were all part of the wedding party. Spiner was the best man, according to an interview he did with People, while the others served as groomsmen.
It's cool to see these photos from LeVar Burton at a time when we may never see this cast together in a series again. Of course, Michael Dorn has noted that the story never ends in Star Trek, so maybe we shouldn't give up hope that this crew won't appear in a series or movie. Patrick Stewart did mention that a script was being written for Jean-Luc Picard, so I wouldn't rule it out.
Currently, The Next Generation cast is seemingly absent from Star Trek projects that are on the way. With temporal distortions and other anomalies occurring in space, I can never entirely rule out a surprise cameo that lands one of these actors as their character in Strange New Worlds Season 3 or elsewhere. It would be easy to bring any of the cast to Lower Decks since they're set in the same timeline, so maybe we'll see them sooner than we think.
Stream Star Trek: The Next Generation on Paramount+, or be on the lookout for it to appear on the dedicated Pluto TV channel for the franchise. Even with all the new projects on the way, it's never a bad time to watch Captain Picard and his crew traverse the galaxy.
