An emotional crowd got to see something special at New York Comic Con 2022, as the Star Trek Universe panel on Saturday afternoon got to see an onstage reunion of the core cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Attending the final Star Trek: Picard portion of the panel were none other than Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, and Patrick Stewart, alongside executive producers Alex Kurtzman, and Rod Roddenberry, as well as showrunner and producer Terry Matalas.

“The most important thing was to bring them all into the conversation,” Matalas told the crowd about bringing the core cast back for one final go-around, crediting Patrick Stewart with the idea of reuniting the core TNG cast for the third and final season of the Paramount+ series. Suggesting that no-one knew the characters as well as the actors who played them for more than a decade, Matalas said that as long as the actors were satisfied, producers and writers knew they were doing something right.

“Everyone is returning with their own story,” Alex Kurtzman said of the cast rejoining the franchise for the final Picard season, adding that “Terry Matalas was so in love with telling the story of that last Next Gen movie, the one we never got to see.” The only way that would work, Kurtzman said, was in a 10-hour season that allows each character their chance to grow.

Asked how it felt to return, the cast split between jokes (“It was hell,” said Marina Sirtis, while Brent Spiner added, “It was like swimming in a rainbow with thousands of naked cherubs”) and humility. LeVar Burton said it was “genuinely delicious,” while Patrick Stewart described it, simply, as “home.”

It wasn’t just the sight of the cast reunited that awaited fans; there was also a brand new trailer for the season, introducing its main villains: Amanda Plummer’s Badick, Daniel Davis returning as holographic bad guy Moriarty, and Brent Spiner playing, surprisingly, Lore — Data’s evil twin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2V1cSVj-w

Asked if there was ever a chance for the cast to continue with the franchise, Patrick Stewart mentioned that there were Paramount Pictures executives in the audience, before saying, “We could make a movie.”

Throughout all of New York Comic Con 2022, Popverse is going to be keeping up with everything that happens, from panels and breaking news to interviews and the best cosplay on the show floor. We’ll be sharing everything as it happens — including exclusive livestreams from the biggest panels at the show — so let us keep you in the loop all weekend.

If you’ve enjoyed this coverage, please give Popverse a shoutout by tagging us on @PopverseSays on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, or linking to us at www.thepopverse.com.