Why Wesley Crusher wasn’t a part of Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard season three just wrapped up without Wil Wheaton making an appearance as Wesley Crusher

A good portion of this season revolved around Admiral Jean-Luc Picard’s son, Jack Crusher, and his relationship to the villains of the series. Jack’s mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher, withheld the knowledge of her son from Picard because she was trying to protect him. She’d also already lost one son to the galaxy, and she didn’t want to lose another. But fans wanted to know, even though Wesley Crusher is now a Traveler, why Wil Wheaton couldn’t have at least had a cameo like he did at the end of season two.

According to Collider, Wheaton wrote an explanation on his Facebook page as to why his character couldn’t appear, saying that as much as Wesley would have loved to have seen his mother again and met his brother, one of the fundamental rules of being a Traveler prevented that from happening.

"“One of the fundamental rules of being in the Travelers is that, once you’ve joined, you must NEVER interact directly with the people, places, planets, etc. that were part of your previous life, because it can affect your judgment and break reality. Wesley would like nothing more than to visit his mom, and meet his brother,” he knows that “not seeing them is a sacrifice he has to make in service of something so much bigger than anything else in his reality.”"

Wil Wheaton did make an appearance as Wesley Crusher in season two of Star Trek: Picard.

That appearance matched up with Wheaton’s description, though, as he didn’t see anyone he knew, and he didn’t interact with anyone that was part of his previous life. He only showed up to recruit Kore Soong, who was played by Isa Briones.

If Wheaton’s explanation is something the producers and writers abide by, then we shouldn’t expect to see Wesley in any interactions with his former friends and family. Of course, Star Trek is a big world so there are plenty of other opportunities for the Traveler to show up as he did when Kore needed a sense of direction. Still, though, it would have been nice to have seen Wesley and his mother back together again, if only for a few minutes.