Worf's return to Star Trek: Picard came with a brutal entrance as he saved Raffi's (Michelle Hurd) life by decapitating the Ferengi Sneed who was played by Aaron Stanford. It was a powerful scene that reintroduced the warrior side of Michael Dorn's character. And after learning he'd gotten the role and what it entailed during that first scene, Dorn had an actor in mind to play the dead Ferengi walking—Armin Shimerman, who spent seven years playing the greedy but somewhat lovable Ferengi, Quark, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
According to Shimerman, who was on TrekMovie’s All Access Star Trek podcast this week to talk about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Dorn shared the idea that Shimerman play Sneed on Picard. Needless to say, Shimerman wasn't enthralled with the idea, especially knowing his character would meet his end at Worf's blade.
"“Before they cast [Sneed], [Michael] Dorn me up and said ‘I’m doing an episode of Picard where I kill off a Ferengi? Wouldn’t it be great if it were you.’ [laughs] I said, ‘No, it would not be great.’ I told him to just forget about that idea, altogether.”"Armin Shimerman
Kitty Swink, Shimerman's wife, who was also on the All Access Star Trek podcast, stood up for her husband and said that after all of the bread she'd baked for Dorn, it basically wasn't a good thing to say...only she expressed that a little stronger.
"“I got to say, for all the times I have baked bread for Michael Dorn, that was really a shitty thing for him to say.” [laughs]"Kitty Swink
Of course, we know this is all in good fun as Dorn and Shimerman spent four years working together on Deep Space Nine and obviously share a friendship. Why else would Swink be baking bread for him? Still, it would have been quite funny to know that was the former Quark behind the new Ferengi mask on Picard!