James McAvoy Pitched A Star Trek Prequel Series That Would've Answered A Picard Mystery

The "Star Trek" streaming TV surge of the 2020s, powered by Paramount+ (né CBS All Access), allowed Sir Patrick Stewart to return as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. "Star Trek: Picard" ran for three seasons, climaxing with one last ride for the crew of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "Picard" Season 3 felt like the climactic "TNG" finale movie that "Star Trek: Nemesis" tried to be, and was just as disappointing. But while Stewart's time playing Picard is (presumably) over, that doesn't mean the character will stay gone.

Sci-fi and genre nerds hold Stewart as synonymous with two completely different roles: Picard, obviously, but also Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" films. Ever since the 2011 prequel "X-Men: First Class," when Scottish actor James McAvoy played a young Professor X, Trekkies have sincerely and jokingly said McAvoy is the natural choice to play a young Picard. Someone who's on the "sincerely" side of that? McAvoy himself.

In a recent appearance on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast with Josh Horowitz, McAvoy revealed he pitched a Picard prequel miniseries, apparently titled "Mutiny on the Stargazer." "I've got a whole story about an early Picard, because all I really want to do in my career is play young versions of Patrick," said McAvoy, saying the project would've been a "one-off standalone season."

During the interview, McAvoy said with a grin that "We nearly did it," so it appears the project wasn't just a cheeky suggestion by McAvoy. The series, true to its title, would've focused on Picard's first captaincy on the Stargazer — which he attained after taking command in the heat of a crisis when the ship's original captain was killed. According to McAvoy, the series would've explored "what actually happened [on the Stargazer], and the secret [Picard has] been holding his entire career."

Captain Picard's time on the Stargazer is one of the earliest parts of his backstory that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" explored, in Season 1, Episode 9, "The Battle." The episode reveals that, nine years before "Next Generation" Season 1, the Stargazer was seemingly destroyed in battle with an unidentified starship while traveling the Maxia Zeta star system. In reality, the ship was recovered by the attackers, the Ferengi. A Ferengi named Bok (Frank Corsentino), seeking revenge for Picard killing his son in that battle, used the preserved Stargazer in a plot to discredit Picard.

(This early in the show, "Next Generation" was still trying to make the Ferengi into the main villains, before reducing them to comic relief and replacing them with the Romulans, the Borg, and the Cardassians, and then letting "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" redeem the Ferengi with characters like Armin Shimerman's Quark.)

During the "Battle of Maxia," Picard developed the eponymous Picard Maneuver: jumping to light speed for a split second and making it appear as if your ship is in two places at once on enemy sensors. Later "Next Generation" episodes added onto the details about Picard's tenure on the Stargazer. In particular, Season 6's "Tapestry" mentioned Picard became the Stargazer's captain by taking command during an emergency, but offered scant details of the crisis thereof.

The proposed James McAvoy-led series could fill in the gaps, like how the Stargazer's captain had been killed. But at the same time, the idea that Picard was always hiding a big secret — that never got addressed again — is the kind of retcon that may not sit right with long time Trekkies. Perhaps the legend of the Stargazer is better of remaining a legend.