This is how Bruce Horak will return to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

This post contains spoilers from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “All Those Who Wander.”

Last week, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds said goodbye to Bruce Horak who played Hemmer, the Enterprise’s chief engineer, but the farewell most likely won’t last for long. The actor has already confirmed that he would return to Star Trek. But that was all the information he provided. Maybe it was all the information he had at the time. But Strange New Worlds co-executive producer Davy Perez was able to provide a little more when he made an appearance on 7th Rule podcast, co-hosted by Ryan Husk and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Cirroc Lofton. [Via Trekmovie]

When Perez was asked about whether Hemmer could return and how, Perez said there were always flashbacks, but then he went on to say that Horak’s relationship with Trek isn’t over. He specificed that Star Trek has a long tradition of reusing actors. No one knows this better than Jeffrey Combs as Lofton mentioned. And that is one of the positives about Horak having played an alien. He could return as anyone now.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will see Bruce Horak again.

Many fans had already found a favorite in Hemmer, and it won’t be the same having Horak return as another character. We will miss the engineer whose time aboard the Enterprise was all too brief. But it’s heartening to know that the actor will return to the Star Trek, and most likely, to Strange New Worlds, which Perez didn’t rule out.

"The thing we’re allowed to say is that Bruce Horak… his relationship with Trek is not over. We really love him. And Star Trek has a long tradition of reusing actors. There are plenty of people that you fall in love with and you’re like, “Well, they were an alien, they could be another alien, they could be without the makeup because they were an alien.” So whatever it is in the future, we know his relationship with Star Trek is not over."

And since Perez wrote the episode that resulted in Hemmer’s death, he could certainly write flashback scenes returning the actor to the character. But, barring that, it’ll be nice to see how Horak returns to the Star Trek world and whether or not we’ll actually recognize him.