After an adventure to the past in a sophomore season that was both very fun and very heartbreaking, four cast members have confirmed that they won’t be returning for Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard. Isa Briones, who played the android Soji during the first season and genetically modified Kore in Season 2, is the latest cast member to depart. The actress confirmed her exit in an Instagram post, saying “Farewell Soji, this orchid is for you.”
Briones is one of a handful of actors on Picard who ended up playing an entirely different character than the one she was initially cast as during Season 2. With the introduction of Q (John De Lancie) induced time travel, the second season was vastly distinct from Season 1. Evan Evagora’s character, Elnor, was killed in the first episode of Season 2 — the actor spent most of the season absent before the character was revived in the season finale. Evagora has also confirmed via Instagram that he won’t be back for the show’s final season writing. “I won’t be back for the third season of Picard, so to quote a mediocre band “thanks for the memories” y’all know the rest! LLAP,” he wrote.
Santiago Cabrera and Alison Pill have both also confirmed their exits from the series. Cabrera played the rugged Captain Cristóbal Rios who got one of the best arcs of the second season. Cabrera’s exit is likely the least surprising as his character found love in 2024 and received an emotional send-off in the season finale. Pill’s exit comes as more of a shock as Jurati spent several episodes evolving into the new Borg Queen. With Borg Queen Jurati requesting to join the Federation and guard a trans-warp conduit of unknown origin, explaining her absence in Season 3 won’t be easy.
Pill confirmed her exit in a recent interview with Movieweb saying, “I wasn’t a part of Season 3, so I don’t have much to say about it in terms of spoilers. I will get to watch along with everybody else.” With the entire legacy cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation recently announced to be returning for Season 3, it makes sense that we’d see some cast departures to make room for those familiar faces. Despite this inevitability, it’s disappointing to know that certain characters will never meet. Following Data’s (Brent Spiner) death in Season 1, the possibility of seeing synth Soji meet the android’s best friend Geordi La Forge (Levar Burton) was certainly an emotional one. Season 3 was filmed immediately following Season 2 and wrapped on the finale in February 2022.
Star Trek: Picard will return to Paramount + for a third and final season, though a release date has not yet been announced. Check out the actors’ farewell posts down below.
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