How many people have played Jean-Luc Picard across various incarnations of Star Trek? More than you think. While Patrick Stewart originated the role, it was never recast through the seven-year run of The Next Generation, nor in the four TNG films, nor in Picard — but a few other actors have played younger versions of the iconic character. IN TNG, David Tristan Birkin played Picard when he was turned into a child in the episode “Rascals,” while the TNG episode “Tapestry” saw Marcus Nash play Picard in flashbacks. In Picard Season 2, Dylan Von Halle played a very young Jean-Luc in several flashbacks, and Tom Hardy (yes, that Tom Hardy) played a younger Picard clone in Star Trek: Nemesis.
But one actor who played a younger version of a different Patrick Stewart character was James McAvoy, starred as the younger Professor Charles Xavier in four X-Men movies from 2011 to 2019. And, it turns out that in the very recent past, McAvoy wanted to expand his young Patrick Stewart character repertoire to include Jean-Luc Picard, and star in a series that explored Picard’s captaincy of the USS Stargazer.
