Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart reveals surprising inspirations for Picard

Star Trek veteran Patrick Stewart has shared the real-life and fictional figures that influenced his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Stewart starred as Picard in the late 80s/early 90s TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also reprised the role alongside the rest of the Next Generation’s cast in a series of films that started with 1994’s Star Trek Generations and wrapped up with 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis.

The English thespian seemed done with playing Picard following Nemesis’ underwhelming critical and commercial performance, however, he later agreed to headline the 2020 streaming series Star Trek: Picard. It ran for three seasons in total, the last of which reunited Stewart with The Next Generation’s core acting line-up.

There’s currently no word on whether a fourth season of Picard will happen, however, Stewart has expressed willingness to sign on for additional episodes, provided the storytelling quality doesn’t dip.

Patrick Stewart reveals surprising inspirations for Jean-Luc Picard

Regardless of whether Stewart ultimately does or doesn’t play Picard again, it will remain – along with X-Men’s Charles Xavier – the role he’s best remembered for. And with good reason too, as Stewart’s recently released autobiography, Making It So, outlines just how much thought he put into developing the Starfleet captain’s character.

In the book (per /Film), Stewart lists several people both real and imaginary that informed his take on Picard. They include Shakespeare’s Henry IV (and some of his inner circle), C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, and Stewart’s own father, Regimental Sergeant Major Alfred Stewart, and mother, Gladys.

Stewart also notes that the loneliness he felt while preparing for Star Trek: The Next Generation left its mark on his performance as Picard, especially during early episodes. “My solitariness… pushed me into one aspect of Jean-Luc that I hadn’t before considered: He is, by nature, a loner,” Stewart writes. “In a sense, his job as captain, especially in the [Next Generation] days, required this to be true.”

“I might have leaned too hard into Picard’s go-it-alone attitude in the early episodes, though,” he continues. “I have certainly made him a more open and accessible man over time.”

Star Trek Picard showrunner teases spinoff series

Many of Stewart’s more junior co-stars on Picard would no doubt love the opportunity to spend decades evolving their own characters, and according to showrunner Terry Matalas, they just might get it. Matalas hinted at the possibility of a Picard spinoff centered around the likes of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), and Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) following the Season 3 finale’s release.

“[Picard’s final episode wasn’t] specifically seeding for a spinoff,” he said at the time. “As lovely as that is to think about. I definitely wanted the feeling that it could go on, that it was a passing of the torch of the last generation to the next… Having said that, of course, I want to see Jack and Seven and Sidney and Raffi and everybody go on forever.”

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