Star Trek: Picard: Brent Spiner Teases His New Character In Season 2

10/20/2021 10:16 am EDT

Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner will return in the second season of Star Trek: Picard, but not as the beloved and iconic android Data. Both Spiner and Jean-Luc Picard said goodbye to Data after Spiner played him one last time in Star Trek: Picard's first season finale. While Data is gone, Spiner is back in the upcoming season. Some thought he'd reprise the role of Altan Ingo Soong, the other character he's already played in Star Trek: Picard. It turns out he's playing someone new, though he will be keeping things in the Soong family, as is tradition.

 "I can tell you I'm not Data," Spiner tells Inverse. "I know they haven't revealed much about me being in the show. I can tell you I'm a member of the Soong family. And, that I'm not playing a character I've ever played before."

Noonien Soong is the scientist who created Data. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Spinner portrayed the elderly Soong in the episode "Brothers" (in which he also played Soong's other android, the mischievous Lore). He also played younger Noonien as an illusion and a hologram in subsequent Next Generation episodes. Altan Inigo Soong is Noonien's biological son, though Noonien always seemed more interested in his synthetic children. In Star Trek: Enterprise, Spinner guest-starred as one of Noonien's great-grandfather, the genetic engineer Arik Soong, for a three-episode arc in the show's final season that spanned the episodes "Borderland," "Cold Station 12," and "The Augments."

It seems that Star Trek: Picard's second season will go back even further, introducing another member of the Soong family. This introduction is made possible by the apparent use of time travel and alternate realities in season two's plot. Picard and company are likely to meet another member of the Soong family from before Noonien and Data's time.

Star Trek: Picard sees Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation, following him into the next chapter of his life. Its cast includes Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Jeri Ryan, Orla Brady, John de Lancie, Annie Wersching, and Brent Spiner.

Who do you think Brent Spiner's new character is going to be? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard Season Two premieres in February 2022 on Paramount+. Star Trek: Picard's first season is streaming now on Paramount+.

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