The Star Trek franchise is no stranger to time travel and alternate timelines — there’s an entire film franchise built off one. That’s why eyes rolled when the first trailer for Star Trek: Picard season 2 dropped and revealed that Picard and crew would be traveling back in time to alter a divergent timeline. However, the second trailer for Star Trek: Picard season 2 may give a bit more hope for those disappointed by the redundancy as we get our first look at Whoopi Goldberg returning to her role of Guinan, the wise bartender and mysterious El-Aurian that Picard often turned to for advice.
The return of Whoopi Goldberg was heavily rumored, (Patrick Stewart directly invited her back during an episode of The View.) but this new Picard season 2 trailer is the first official confirmation that Guinan will be showing up. She seems to be playing at least a somewhat major role, though still heavy into the mysterious advice-giving. As the trailer shows, season 2 will not just see the return of Guinan, but also Q, with John de Lancie reprising his role as the quipping, omnipotent space being. And yet still, that is not the end of the returning characters. There is also the Borg Queen, whom Picard has gone up against a few times, playing a role somehow in time travel shenanigans, though she will be played by newcomer Annie Wersching.
Returning or arriving for Star Trek: Picard season 2 are Alison Pill, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Orla Brady, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, Brent Spiner, Annie Wersching, and guest star John de Lancie. Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas serve as co-showrunners for the second season, which still doesn’t look like it’s pulling anything new out of Picard. The first season played heavily into nostalgia but never quite found its way to anything interesting, and without that nostalgia kick it’s challenging to see how Picard is going to shake up a tired storyline. But hopefully there are some twists and turns in here that will give us something more.
Star Trek: Picard will premiere on March 3, with plenty more Trek on the way.
