Evan Evagora didn’t have long to play Elnor in season two of Star Trek: Picard.
Evan Evagora played the Romulan Elnor on Star Trek: Picard for fifteen episodes in seasons one and two. At the beginning of the second season, Elnor had enrolled in Starfleet Academy and had the distinction of being the first Romulan to do so, but he met a harsh fate not long after the first episode as he was killed in an alternate timeline. And, as much as it did to the viewers, the character’s death came as a total surprise to Evagora when he read the script.
At the Star Trek: Picard panel at the 56-Year Mission convention in Las Vegas [via Trekmovie], Evagora said he read that he got shot and didn’t believe it. After perusing a few pages, he discovered that Elnor had died. He said no one had told him beforehand and that there hadn’t even been a phone call at first. Then Akiva Goldsman finally contacted him to tell him not to panic.
"No one told me. No phone call. And then Akiva [Goldsman] ended up ringing me and was like, “Don’t panic, everything is okay, you come back in the end.” And I was like, “How? I’m dead?” But it all worked out. But every week was me flipping through it to see if I was alive yet."
Evan Evagora should have had more screen time in the second season.
I previously wrote about how the second season of Picard had squandered Evagora’s role, and in that post, I wasn’t sure if the actor’s screen time had been lessened by his choice. Now knowing that Evagora wasn’t even aware of Elnor’s onscreen death until he read the script answers my question and serves to solidify my opinion.
Elnor’s resurrection at the end of the second season doesn’t negate the lost screen time for the actor, especially when so much was made of his being the first Romulan to enter Starfleet Academy. Evagora won’t be returning to the third and final season of Picard so I hope his next role will be as fulfilling as this one could have been.