LeVar Burton may not be sticking around Star Trek much longer but he’s open to more.
Star Trek is going to be saying goodbye to many of its long-time cast members with the last season of Star Trek: Picard. For Patrick Stewart, this is likely the last time you’ll ever see him in anything Star Trek-related for the last of his career. That may not be the case for others like Marina Sirtis, who has expressed a willingness to return. For LeVar Burton, however, if this is it, this is it.
This isn’t too surprising, Burton has spoken about the final season of Picard being a love poem of sorts to The Next Generation series. So he’s clearly at peace with how the series ended.
Burton spoke with Yahoo (via TrekMovie.com), and revealed that if he’s done with Star Trek, then he’s ok with that.
"If I never put a spacesuit on again, I’m good. I feel like I got to put a period at the end of this sentence and close the book. Now if the book opens again, far it be from me to say no! [Laughs] But with all things being equal, I can honestly say — hand on my heart — if I never play Geordi for another moment in my life, I’m good."
LeVar Burton has options inside Star Trek that others may not
There really isn’t an audience for a Dr. Beverly Crusher murder mystery series or a “This Old Starship” franchise starring Reginald Barclay. Yet, a series featuring Burton’s Geordi La Forge would be something a lot of fans would be interested in.
With other characters in the series, we’ve seen them continue on their characters to some degree elsewhere. Worf had 11 seasons to tell his story. Picard, William Riker, and others came back for the first season of Picard. Data had two movies about him.
For La Forge, he was rarely ever the focal point of the series, and save for a cameo in Voyager, we really don’t know who Geordie matures into. He was one of the younger members of the staff and a series around him fully maturing into a top Starfleet officer would work.
It’ll be interesting if any characters get their own spinoff from the end of Picard.