Posted in: Star Trek, TV | Tagged: ian mckellen, Making It So, paramount, patrick stewart, star trek, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, x-men

Star Trek: How Ian McKellen Nearly Cost Us Patrick Stewart's Picard

Star Trek star Sir Patrick Stewart shares how Sir Ian McKellen's TV snobbery nearly cost us having Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.

Sir Patrick Stewart's acting career is filled with uncertainty and second-guessing. Things could have easily turned out very differently had he turned down his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise. Long before Stewart would reunite with his fellow Royal Shakespeare Company actor and best friend Sir Ian McKellen in 20th Century Studios' X-Men franchise, McKellen tried to discourage Stewart from taking that leap into American television  for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart, who's coming off his 10th season as Jean-Luc following his third and presumably final one in the Paramount+ series Picard following his seven-season stint on the syndicated TNG and four Paramount theatrical films, chronicled McKellen's misgivings in his memoir Making It So.

"When I told him I was going to sign the contract, he almost bodily prevented me from doing so," Stewart wrote in an excerpt from Insider. "'No!' he said. 'No, you must not do that. You must not. You have too much important theater work to do. You can't throw that away to do TV. You can't. No!'" On top of The Lord of the Rings franchise star's objections, creator Gene Roddenberry didn't want a bald captain of his Enterprise-D until longtime The Original Series executive producer Robert Justman convinced him otherwise after seeing him perform on stage. Stewart even went through the trouble of having his wife fly in with his wig to the audition before Paramount executives opted to keep his natural look.

"There are few people, particularly with regard to acting, whose counsel I trust more than Ian's," Stewart wrote. "But this time, I had to tell him that I felt theater would return to my life whenever I was ready for it, whereas an offer of the lead role in an American TV series might never come again. In the years since we have become dear pals and 'X-Men' colleagues, and Ian has acknowledged that he was wrong and I was right. More than once, in fact – primarily because I like making him say those words." McKellen wasn't alone in his doubt since Stewart didn't believe TNG would last beyond a season. Not only was he wrong about the Star Trek spinoff, but he was also wrong about the series' final theatrical villain, played by Tom Hardy in 2002's Nemesis, mistaking his social disconnect for crippling unprofessionalism that would stunt his career. Making It So is available in stores and in audio formats.

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