Jeri Ryan is back playing Seven of Nine for Star Trek: Picard’s second season.
Jeri Ryan rose to stardom due to her four-season run on Star Trek: Voyager. Equal parts sex appeal and undeniable talent, Ryan’s Seven of Nine became a huge focus on the series following her arrival. Her popularity soar and was part of the franchise’s bigger universe plans; with a role set for her in Star Trek: Nemesis that she turned down.
Well, 25 years later, Ryan returned to Star Trek with Picard. She spoke to Entertainment Tonight and how Ryan felt like she was truly leaving Seven of Nine behind with the conclusion of Voyager; something we now know wasn’t the case.
"I did four years on Voyager and I really thought that was it. And when I said goodbye to the character, then I really thought that was it. I was saying goodbye to that character."
Ryan thought she was done with Trek, mostly of her own choice at first, but then James Duffy, a writer on Picard, started to see if she was interested.
"[Duffy] had mentioned it to me in passing at the Hollywood Bowl, after several glasses of champagne — which he knew would be the appropriate moment to bring it up. I thought he was joking and then he kept bringing it up."
Alex Kurtzman later revealed to Ryan that her character of Seven of Nine was a name often mentioned during the writer’s room sessions.
Jeri Ryan tried to break free of Star Trek after Voyager ended
When speaking to TrekMovie about her time on Voyager, she revealed she turned down a key part in Nemesis due to her wanting to not be type-cast anymore and wanting to break out of the perception that she was just Star Trek’s Seven of NIne.
"I just did four years in a catsuit and I just got on a David Kelley show, which was my one chance to break out of Star Trek, which was still frankly a fear that I wasn’t going to be able to escape that and do something else. You have very little outs in a TV series contract, so I didn’t want my first step once David Kelley made this role for me to be “Hey, could you let off for a couple months to do Star Trek."
The show she ended up landing on was Boston Public, where she had three seasons as Ronnie Cooke. The show only lasted for four seasons and Ryan is still best known for her time in Star Trek.