How Star Trek: Prodigy And Picard Collaborated To Bring Back One Of Star Trek’s Biggest 'Abandoned' Characters
Warning! The following contains SPOILERS for Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy. Stream it now with a Netflix subscription and read at your own risk!
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 is streaming on Netflix, and it's the best serialized Trek story we've seen in franchise history. One of the reasons why is how well it intertwined itself into other shows, and there's one massive tie-in with Picard that many fans are excited about. Surprisingly, CinemaBlend learned from the Hageman brothers that they were actually deep into using Wesley Crusher for Season 2 when Picard called and shared the story of how it all worked out.
For those reading who haven't seen it yet and don't care about spoilers, Wesley Crusher ends up being a key figure in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2. He helps Dal and the crew attempt to correct the timeline and avoid the time beasts known as The Loom. It takes just about every ounce of his power as a Traveler, but he gets it done.
Given that Wil Wheaton returned as Wesley Crusher in Picard Season 2 before the second half of Prodigy Season 1 ever aired, one might assume the co-creators took inspiration from the cameo to make him a part of the next season. Kevin Hageman confirmed, however, that they had Wesley Crusher in their season before Picard had worked him in, and shared how Picard showrunner Terry Matalas collaborated with them on helping bring the character back to Star Trek:
They were wonderful over on Picard. We were already in the middle of writing our season so Terry [Matalas] called us up and is like, ‘What are you guys doing with Wesley because we’re hoping to do something little.’ So we got in sync, but yeah, we were already down the road [writing that story] because we knew Wesley is the original prodigy. How great would it be for him to come back? Star Trek kind of abandoned him after Wesley walked off the screen of Next Generation. No one’s really touched where this character is. So, it was such a blast.
Fans were disappointed when Wil Wheaton's Wesley wasn't featured in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, making his return feel somewhat superfluous. We know now that it was Terry Matalas teeing up the character's big adventure in Prodigy Season 2, which showed many of his abilities as a Traveler.
Matalas didn't just tee up Star Trek: Prodigy to tell a grand story about Wesley's return; he even gave them some spoilers well in advance. Dan Hageman confirmed to CinemaBlend that he told them Picard Season 3's biggest secret about Jack Crusher so they could work it into the end of their season.
And then they told us, ‘Wesley’s got a brother,’ so then we’re like ok we gotta figure out a way to get that in.
I wonder if when Ed Speleers talked to CinemaBlend about sharing a scene with Wil Wheaton, he knew this scene was coming all along? It's certainly possible, though with Jack being a toddler, I don't imagine Speleers would need to be told about the scene happening if Wheaton hadn't told them during their conversation.
What's most impressive about the collaboration is how similar the characters look between live-action and animation. Kevin Hageman noted that there's a reason for that, and that the two teams worked together to ensure Wesley looked consistent across the two shows:
They looked at our character designs and stuff so that they didn’t have Wesley walk on [Picard] and look totally different.
Star Trek: Prodigy and Picard set the stage for future adventures for Wesley Crusher, potentially in upcoming Trek shows. I could see a spinoff for the character similar in tone to Doctor Who, and with Russell T. Davies making nods to Trek in his Disney+ series, now might be the perfect time for that show. I'm all for more Wesley in the future, so maybe some Trek creatives can put their heads together again and figure out a way for that to happen.
Star Trek: Prodigy is available to watch right now on Netflix. Stream it now so that fans can see Season 3 happen, and maybe even tell a friend to watch as well so we can all have great sci-fi animated adventures in the future.
