Picard Season 3 Teaser Confirms That The Entire Next Generation Cast Is Coming Back
April 5, 2063, is First Contact Day in "Star Trek" lore — the day humans first came face-to-face with an alien species as depicted in the 1996 film "Star Trek: First Contact" — and Paramount has made a notable announcement to celebrate.
A teaser for season three of "Star Trek: Picard" was released on the Paramount+ Twitter feed this morning, confirming that most of the central cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" will be returning. The teaser depicts Picard (Patrick Stewart) writing a letter, extracting an old uniform out of a trunk, and regarding his old NextGen-era communicator while dialogue from old friends — reading new dialogue! — is heard on the soundtrack.
Confirmed by credits, season three of "Picard" will feature LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Michael Dorn. These actors first convened in the first episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987, and haven't been seen together since "Star Trek: Nemesis" in 2002. Wil Wheaton and Denise Crosby have not been announced as being part of the cast.
The gang's all here
"Star Trek: Picard" has already featured many familiar faces from throughout "Star Trek" lore: Q (John De Lancie), Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) have all appeared, as have regular "Next Generation" cast members Frakes, Spiner, and Sirtis, all reprising their roles.
The third season of "Picard," already announced as the show's last, will be a full cast reunion. Nothing is yet known about the situation of their reunion, nor the plot. Given the ages of the actors, "Star Trek" has finally caught up with "All Good Things..." the final episode of "Next Generation" which took place partially in the future and posited the future careers of each of the characters. Geordi (Burton) was raising kids and writing novels, Dr. Crusher (McFadden) had married and divorced Picard and was now captain of the Enterprise, Data (Spiner) was teaching, Worf (Dorn) was a diplomat, Troi (Sirtis) had died, and Riker (Frakes) was an admiral.
Data died at the conclusion of "Nemesis" and then died again at the end of "Picard" season one. His return is currently a mystery.
Also, from the press release, one can donate to charity using Twitter:
As another part of this year's First Contact Day celebrations, Paramount+ and CBS will jointly donate $1 for every Tweet (one per handle) sent that uses the hashtag #StarTrekUnitedGives through Sunday, April 10th. Donations will go towards charities that support LGBTQ+ equality, veterans, and humanitarian aid. Visit StarTrek.com/StarTrekUnitedGives for more info and terms.