Star Trek: Picard chose the best in Ito Aghayere for a 2024 Guinan

Ito Aghayere took on the role of a young Guinan in Star Trek: Picard.

This post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard, episode 4 “Watcher.”

When Star Trek: Picard took its characters back to the 21st century, it brought in one of Admiral Picard’s oldest and dearest friends—Guinan, but it couldn’t leave Whoopi Goldberg in the role because of the time period. Instead, Ito Aghayere, who played Dr. Maya Jacobs in Carol’s Second Act, took on the role, and she did so with a panache that made the character all her own and yet was still befitting the Guinan Goldberg had embodied.

Guinan always had this sense of serenity about her, but Aghayere’s portrayal required a different take on the character because this wasn’t the Guinan who knew Admiral Picard. This Guinan hadn’t found that calmness yet as she had yet to fully accept that the world wasn’t going to be the world she wanted it to be.

Ito Aghayere grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation

Aghayere’s Nigerian born parents would only allow her and her siblings to watch certain shows as children. Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of them because they thought, according to an interview Aghayere gave Variety, Patrick Stewart looked really smart and intelligent, and she would learn something watching the series.

And it was time that served Aghayere well. As much as she loved Goldberg’s portrayal of the character, she had to become a different version of her, one that didn’t yet have the optimism we would find on board the Enterprise.

"“Rewatching her episodes, it gave me a lens into the future of who this character would be. In some ways, what I did was reverse engineer what someone has to grow into in order to be Whoopi’s Guinan. What wisdom doesn’t she have access to, what optimism does she not subscribe to, so that she can have a place to go? What does she not know yet that she will come to learn to be the enigmatic, wise counselor that she is in “TNG”?One of the things that I did was go through all of the different moments through “TNG” where Whoopi’s Guinan mentions things about loss, things about her history, things about her pain. I took note of every moment where she hints at a past pain. That allowed me to strip that down into its component parts. What wisdom do I have now, but isn’t applied in the best way? You know, and I think that’s why this story can happen, because I need the Picard of Whoopi’s timeline to at least get me going along the path of where Whoopi’s Guinan ends up.”"

Needless to say, Aghayere crushed her short time as Guinan. Although it’s possible her character will return before the season ends, she brought her most to the scenes she shared with Patrick Stewart, and those scenes will stand out as some of the best this season.