What Star Trek: The Next Generation star is most likely to be killed off in Picard?

Should Star Trek: The Next Generation fans be worried about characters dying in Star Trek: Picard?

Star Trek: Picard will be reuniting the core group of The Next Generation for one final time in Picard’s third and final season. The entire crew of the Enterprise-D is back, with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Worf (Micael Dorn), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) are all back as their previous characters. Brent Spiner will return, but not as his iconic character Data, but as Data’s evil twin-brother Lore.

Not only is Spiner back as well, despite Data “dying” (for real this time) in the first season of Picard, but there’s a rumor that Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar in the first season of the show, will return as well but as Sela, Yar’s half-human, half-Romulan daughter from the past.

With everyone back, Picard coming to an end and everyone getting a lot older, the talk of killing off some characters has popped up.  Showrunner Terry Matals spoke to SFX Magazine about this and revealed that not all of the characters make it out “safely” in season three;

"They certainly did have a great time and they certainly all would love to do this again. I think there are ways of seeing these characters again, in a kind of Next, Next Generation story. Not all these characters—I’m not gonna say they all necessarily make it out safely of season three. But I will say that in science fiction, there are always ways of seeing people again. So of course, who wouldn’t want to do this forever?"

Patrick Stewart is the most obvious name to say goodbye after Star Trek: Picard ends

When it comes to any member of the Star Trek: Picard cast, there are a number of reasons why any of them would or could be killed off. When you think of the ages of the actors and actresses in the franchise, and whether or not they’d be called upon again to reprise their roles, it’s better to have a finite ending now, than blow your chance and hold out hope for something that may never come.

Yet, the most obvious name that makes sense to say goodbye to for that reason alone is Patrick Stewart, Jean-Luc Picard himself. Stewart is 82 years old, and as a talent, really can’t be relied upon any further considering his age. While there have been talks about a movie featuring Picard one more time, the fact that Stewart would be 84, 85, or even older makes that an unwise decision. And we all know why, it doesn’t need to be said.

The producers and hopefully Stewart himself knows this, and should have developed Picard’s final season as a way to say goodbye to Stewart, Picard and the TNG franchise as a whole.