Star Trek: Picard had several cameos during its final season, and Terry Matalas wanted Harry Kim.
Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas had more ideas than the series’ budget would allow, but one in particular he wanted to do was to bring back Star Trek: Voyager’s Harry Kim. Kim, played by Garrett Wang, was the perpetual ensign aboard Voyager during the entirety of its seven season run. In fact, his lack of promotion has become a running joke amongst Star Trek fans, but it’s also seen as a slap in the face to Wang’s character. The only reason given for his continual ensign status was that someone had to be an ensign on the ship.
Matals wanted to right that wrong and bring Wang back for a cameo during Picard’s third season. According to a roundtable discussion SlashFilm attended, Matalas had every intention of bringing Wang back with a promotion he long deserved. He’d even discussed the idea with Wang, but time and money kept Harry Kim from returning.
Star Trek: Picard would have made Harry Kim a captain.
Matalas did give us Kim’s rank had Wang been able to appear on the series.
"“He was captain actually. […] I talked to Garrett [Wang] about this and he was very, very disappointed. He was [a] captain and yeah, that’s all I can say about it.”"
It stands to reason Wang would be disappointed about not being able to return to fix what Star Trek: Voyager didn’t so many years ago. Who wants to be the butt of a joke for so many years? Matalas said that had they had another twenty minutes, we would have seen everyone at Frontier Day, but that probably wouldn’t have been possible anyway with the amount of money the series expended on bringing back the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the cost of the movie effects.
Though we might not see a Captain Harry Kim in a live-action Star Trek series anytime soon, there is still hope he’ll be promoted in an episode of Star Trek: Prodigy. While nothing has been said about Garrett Wang’s vocal appearance on the animated series, that would seem to be a lot more feasible. Hopefully, sometime in the future, Harry Kim will get what he deserved so many years ago. And right now, Prodigy is looking like his best bet.