Who Is Brent Spiner’s Picard Season 2 Character? It Isn’t Data

Star Trek: Picard season 2 will see Brent Spiner returning to the franchise in yet another new role. The Star Trek: Picard season 2 trailer shows Spiner interacting with the all-powerful, often annoying Q, but very little is known beyond a few quick images about the role the Star Trek alum will play. Though Spiner has appeared in several different Star Trek series, films, and formats, he’s made it clear that he doesn’t wish to play Data any longer. And according to the actor himself, he will be playing a completely new character this time around. Audiences have been left wondering who the long-time Star Trek actor will portray as Picard returns to Paramount+ for its sophomore season.

Spiner has long been accustomed to role-jumping within the Star Trek franchise. The actor first appeared as the Soong-type android, Data, on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 and appeared in 177 episodes of the long-running series. He reprised the role in four feature films, as well. Spiner also appeared as Lore, Data’s manipulative android brother, in three separate episodes throughout The Next Generation. In Star Trek: Nemesis, he starred as B-4, a prototype android. Spiner also appeared as Data’s creator – Dr. Noonien Soong – on Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, as well as Noonien’s ancestor, Arik Soong, in 2004. In season 1 of Picard, Spiner appeared as Altan Inigo Soong, who was considered Data’s human brother as the biological son of the android’s creator, as well as a few scenes in which he portrayed Data.

The answer to who Spiner will appear as in Picard’s second season couldn’t be any muddier. However, despite the secrecy surrounding the actor’s next role, several possibilities are clear. Given the information provided in the trailer, viewers already know that Q will be causing the sort of mischief that “breaks reality” as he shows Jean-Luc “the road not taken.” The first and likely most obvious option is that Spiner will take on the role of yet another Soong family member or an as-yet-unknown Soong-type android. However, the earliest known Soong thus far was season 1’s Altan, but he doesn’t live until the 24th century. The latest Picard trailer indicates that Jean-Luc and his crew are stranded on Earth in the year 2024 for at least part of the season, meaning that any Soong that Spiner portrays would likely have to be a distant ancestor.

The other – and for Spiner, possibly more exciting option – is that the actor may be portraying either a mirror-universe or alternate timeline version of a character he’s already played. While Spiner has said that he will be playing an entirely new role, long-time fans of the franchise will recognize that alternate universe versions of their favorite Star Trek characters are often completely different from the original roles. And since the trailer really only shows Spiner interacting with Q, who can travel anywhere in any time, the possibility also exists that those scenes take place separately from the main timeline of the rest of Picard season 2.

When it comes to who Brent Spiner be playing in Star Trek: Picard season 2, the truth is that the franchise staple actor could be playing just about anyone – except Data – who he’s said he won’t play again. And of course, that could change as well, given enough time or an interesting enough story arc. Whoever the talented Spiner portrays, though, viewers are sure to learn more about the legacy of Dr. Noonien Soong and the synths, as Jean-Luc and his crew attempt to thwart one of the franchise’s most enigmatic antagonists of all time in Q.