The Borg Queen in Star Trek: Picard is a different actress for a good reason.
When the Borg Queen became the embodiment of the hive mind during the events of Star Trek: First Contact, some weren’t happy. “A single voice to speak for the Borg? HOW DARE THEY!” Except it worked. The Borg were originally pitched as insects, so of course, there’d be a single queen among a hive mind, it all checks out. It also didn’t hurt that Alice Krige did so well as the Borg Queen. She endeared herself to the fanbase with her performance and that, in turn, led to the character being more accepted. So it wasn’t surprising to see fans were mad that Krige would not be back for Star Trek: Picard.
What was it about Krige that made the folks at Picard choose to cast someone else for the role? Well, it turns out it had nothing to do with Krige. Instead, the reason they cast someone else for the role was due to the fact they wanted a different take on the Borg Queen.
This would be a different Borg Queen than the ones Jean-Luc Picard and Data met on the Enterprise-E. They didn’t want people to assume they were the same version of characters, and the best way to do that was to bring in a new actress, Annie Wersching.
This isn’t going to be the same Queen we saw on First Contact and later on Voyager, played by Krige and Susanna Thompson, who both tried to play the character similar to one another.
The Star Trek: Picard Borg Queen is going to be radically different
We know that Wersching is the new queen and we know that the Queen is going to be a different version of sorts than the one we’re familiar with. Does that mean a younger version? Maybe it’s an alternate reality version? Maybe it’s a newer version. Either way, we know it’s going to be different.
We also know that the Borg Queen is going to be more predatory in her movements. More deliberate and more animalish in a way. She seems more like a human version of a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. Which is not the Queen we remember.
Yet, it could be really interesting and maybe even a great adaptation of the character depending on how she’s presented.
This Borg Queen is going to be different for sure but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad.