Should Star Trek ever recast the crew of The Next Generation?

Star Trek: The Next Generation seems to be a hotly discussed property these days.

Should the folks at Paramount and Viacom CBS actually recast the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the U.S.S. Enterprise-D? That’s the latest hubbub going around the water cooler. Some fans love the idea, but most fans don’t. It seems almost inevitable with how poorly things are going at Paramount+ and by extension, Star Trek.

Trek has seen two of their more prominent shows get canceled, and their fourth film is lingering in limbo, making reboots all the more possible. Star Trek 2009 was a reboot in itself, updating the original series set of characters. It worked too, as the franchise hit some of its highest profits ever. And while the film was well-liked by the fandom at the time, it brought a whole new style to the franchise that continues to bog it down to this very day.

So would Paramount and co. ever decide to reboot The Next Generation? It seems likely but the cast of Picard, a spiritual sequel of sorts to The Next Generation, aren’t in agreement on it.

Speaking to CinemaBlend, Michael Dorn made it very clear that he isn’t interested in seeing his character of Worf get recast, saying;

"Well, hopefully, I’ll be dead by then [laughs]. You know, who knows? I mean, they’d have to go back to before Next Generation, I would think, to cast something like that. I don’t think they would do that. I really don’t."

Jonathan Frakes had a different mindset entirely, instead picking his replacement, saying;

"I would nominate Wil Wheaton to play Will Riker… He’s a wonderful actor, and he’s got Riker’s beard now."

So, should Star Trek: The Next Generation get recast or rebooted?

If you recast the crew of The Next Generation, then you’re likely putting it in either the Kelvin Timeline of films, or you’re going into yet another universe of storylines. Neither of these really makes sense for fans.

While some execs may see the success of Strange New Worlds and think, “recasting old characters is the answer!”, they’d be wrong. The characters were not why the show worked. The cast, the writing, and the focus on more classic Star Trek ideals are what worked.

it could’ve been any crop of characters played by this cast, with this writing and had this focus and the show would’ve worked. Recasting/rebooting the Next Generation in either a new series or a new film franchise just doesn’t make sense.