Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Ed Speleers, John de Lancie, paramount, patrick stewart, star trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Picard Star John de Lancie Not Confident in "Legacy" Future

John de Lancie reflects on his Star Trek: Picard Season 3 return, post-credits scene, and his concern that time may have passed on "Legacy."

John de Lancie's Q was afforded one final lesson to his Star Trek: The Next Generation nemesis in Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard in season two of the Paramount+ spinoff series Star Trek: Picard in the Season 2 arc that found the former captain of the Enterprise-D in an alternate future along with his present company. With the help of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching), the crew of the La Sirena traveled to 21st century Earth to stop the life-altering event that changes history, but not without Q's mischievous meddling of his own convincing Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) to take up his cause and try to stop them. While Q confides to Jean-Luc that he's "dying", he wants to impart one final lesson before snapping everyone back into the 24th century or so we thought with his cameo to Jean-Luc's son Jack (Ed Speleers) in the post-credits cameo of season three. The actor reflected on his time to TrekMovie on their podcast about his time on the series along with if he feels showrunner Terry Matalas' concept for Picard spinoff Legacy will ever see the light of day.

Star Trek: Picard: How John de Lancie Confronted Q's Mortality

"As time went on, I began going, 'Am I dying?' I don't understand how that's possible. I'm not averse to it; I'm just concerned about it because we're talking about an audience that is exceedingly on point about the show [laughs]. They don't miss anything. And I believe what's going to happen is that they're going to be watching and this and turn to the person that they're watching the show with and say, 'But wait a minute, how is that possible? He's immortal.'… And I was thinking the same thing," de Lancie said. "And if that's where we're going with this, it seems that Star Trek should do what Star Trek does best about philosophical issues—and I don't know of a bigger philosophical issue than dying—that we should deal with it. It's not like a soap opera where all of a sudden a character doesn't come back."

As the bulk of the primary Picard bid farewell with season two being their final entry and production began on season three being filmed back-to-back with the incoming new cast and TNG reunion underway, de Lancie learned that that wasn't it with his touching final scene with Stewart in the season finale. "When we finished that scene, all of a sudden, there was an explosion of applause. The lights went on, and there were 30 or 40 people there. People who had come to watch this last scene between Patrick and I," he said. "Patrick made a little speech. I made a little speech. And [season 3 showrunner] Terry [Matalas] came up to me at that point and said, 'You're coming back, and I figured out how to do it.' And I went, 'Great!' I had the presence of mind, after so many years in the business, to not say, 'How? What do you mean? Explain it to me.'"

Though Q was done with the elder Jean-Luc, he teased having more cryptic adventures ahead for the younger Jack Crusher – though de Lancie's not sure will come to fruition. "Well, most post-credits scenes are [a setup for something else], so I took it as that. In reading it, I went, 'Oh well, there it is! There is the baton. There's the jump-off for the next show.' I don't think, at this point, it will happen," he said. "There was a fun period of time that it looked like it could happen. But then there was the writers' strike, which took a lot of people's attentions away. I don't think that they expected that season 3 was going to be as good and as well-received. They had already decided on another show. They were already moving in another direction. But it was certainly a really valiant and well-appreciated finale to The Next Generation."

For more on how de Lancie feels about how he could maintain the hypothetical new series, you can check out the interview here. Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on Paramount+.

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