James McAvoy wants in on playing Star Trek legend Jean-Luc Picard

James McAvoy wants to join Star Trek to play a young Jean-Luc Picard

Perhaps it’s a joke, or maybe it’s a slight over-exaggeration, but James McAvoy told Jimmy Fallon that he really wants to play Jean-Luc Picard in a future Star Trek property. McAvoy, who is famous for already playing a younger version of Picard’s actor, Patrick Stewart, started filming his own Star Trek parody during the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of some friends, social distancing and cellphones.

While speaking to Fallon, McAvoy really wanted to emphasize how badly he’d like to take on the role of young-Picard.

"Jimmy, that is the only world that exists in which I will play Jean-Luc Picard. Any other world is just an alternate reality in a bad episode of Star Trek."

McAvoy goes on to say that if he can’t land the role, he’ll just keep doing parodies.

"I’m calling it right now. I’m doing the virtual lockdown equivalent of rubbing my scent all over Patrick’s face and saying this territory is mine. All other bald actors can [expletive] off."

The homemade series is really impressive all things considered. Minimal special effects, no one’s in the same room, let alone house, and everything is being done via their cellphones. It’s incredibly insensitive and creative, with a lot of effort being put into a property that, at best, has a budget of a few dollars.

McAvoy played Stewart’s younger version in the X-Men film franchise, where both men played different aged versions of Charles Xavier. Stewart retired from the role and with Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s studio properties, McAvoy appears to be done with the role as well as the entire X-Men universe has essentially ended.

So is McAvoy just goofing about when he says he wants to play a young Picard? Maybe, but why else go to such trouble to produce a shut-in’s Trek fantasy series? Clearly McAvoy has at the very least an appreciation for the property.

There are worse actors to play a young Picard.