Wil Wheaton is apparently done with Wesley Crusher
By D. Goodman
At Awesome Con, Wil Wheaton made it clear that while he would love to be involved with Star Trek again, it won’t be as Wesley Crusher.
It is pretty safe to say that in all of Star Trek history, no character has taken as much grief and general shit from the fans as Wesley Crusher.
The reasons why are many and varied, some justified and some not so much, but there is no arguing that the character was polarizing to the extreme. Portrayed by Wil Wheaton, Crusher was a regular during the first four season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and then only appeared periodically until the series wrapped.
Personally, I will admit I wasn’t a fan of the character all that much during the first couple seasons. However, once Crusher officially became an ensign and got a proper Starfleet uniform, he became much more tolerable and even an enjoyable part of the series.
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Of course, none of that stopped “Shut up Wesley!” from becoming a iconic part of Star Trek lore or Wheaton from having to deal with the fallout from the loathing most fans have for the character.
That said, Wesley Crusher does have a few fans out there as was evidenced this past weekend at Awesome Con in Washington, DC. As reported by Trek Movie, Wheaton took part in a Next Generation panel and Q&A with fellow Trek alums Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and Marina Sirtis.
It was during the Q&A portion that a fan asked if Wheaton would be interested in reprising the role of Wesley Crusher for a series on CBS All Access where Crusher was a captain. While Wheaton seemed flattered, he has apparently moved on from the character.
"I’m so grateful for why you’re asking this question and that Wesley was so important to you…But I think the time for exploring that character has come and gone."
That said, Wheaton did say that if something else were to come along in the Trek Universe, he would be more than happy to sign on.
"I still love Star Trek so much that if they were to reach out to me for anything else I’d absolutely be interested in exploring that."
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It would appear that Trek fandom has seen the last of Wesley Crusher. Is this a bad thing? Probably not. But from a narrative standpoint it always seemed like there was more story to tell about the character. With the right writers and directors, a Wesley Crusher series could have been pretty great. Or at the very least better than the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise.