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LeVar Burton Confirms He's Had Talks About Appearing On Star Trek: Picard
LeVar Burton has revealed there have been talks about his character Geordi La Forge appearing on Star Trek: Picard. Season 1 of the not-quite-sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on CBS All-Access. The show sees Patrick Stewart return as Jean-Luc Picard as he works to uncover a mystery surrounding a synthetic woman, Soji (Isa Briones), who was created from Data's positronic brain.
Star Trek: Picard season 1 is set two decades after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, and though the series is largely focused on Picard's new mission, there are appearances from a few TNG alums. Most notably, Brent Spiner's Data is in the first season, occasionally appearing to Picard in dreams as the former Starfleet admiral grapples with the guilt he still feels over Data's death. In one episode, Picard visits Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deana Troi (Marina Sirtis), and the former Borg, Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), has a pivotal role to play in Picard season 1. So while Star Trek: Picard isn't really a sequel to TNG, season 1 has already included a few TNG characters and future seasons could include more.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight (via TrekMovie), Burton was asked about the possibility of appearing in a future season of Star Trek: Picard. The TNG actor was coy in his response, but he did say his return as Geordi La Forge has been "talked about."
Though Star Trek: Picard did include a few former TNG actors - not to mention, Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) - there are plenty more who could appear in season 2. Stewart himself has even extended an invitation for Whoopi Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan. Then again, Picard has done a great job of building a new cast around Stewart, introducing new characters for Picard to confide in and work with. In which case, Picard may be better of developing its own characters rather than trying to work in too many appearances from former Star Trek actors.
As for Burton ever returning as La Forge, he has been vocal about his wish to reprise the role and even shared with ET that he'd like to see his character "teaching and passing that knowledge and information on to another generation." Burton did visit the set of Picard alongside Worf actor Michael Dorn. The visit came while filming was underway on the season 1 episode in where Frakes and Sirtis return as Riker and Troi, resulting in a behind-the-scenes reunion of sorts. It's possible this was when Burton would have had talks about returning as La Forge in a future episode of Star Trek: Picard, and if so, then perhaps fans will see him as soon as season 2.
