Yesterday, Sir Patrick Stewart shared the first image of himself in the writers’ room for the unnamed new Star Trek about Jean-Luc Picard, and it got quite a reaction. Not only did Stewart fire up social media, but it was covered around the world in the mainstream press and a few Hollywood professionals took note, including one actor who has played a Patrick Stewart role before.

McAvoy is ready to fill Stewart’s shoes again

The writers’ room for the new Picard show has been up and running for weeks, and we have been covering the briefings and teases that have already been shared. But it took Sir Patrick Stewart himself to really light up the world when he posted a shot of himself along with writers and executive producers of the show on social media. The tweet has over 73,000 likes and 1,800 comments in just over a day with the Instagram post getting over 84,000 likes and over 14,000 comments.

One of the people commenting was actor James McAvoy, who played young Charles Xavier in three X-Men movies, a role originated by Sir Patrick Stewart on the big screen. The actor even shaved his head to match Stewart’s pate. And it looks like he is willing to do it again, as he responded to Stewart’s Instagram post with the question “Need a flashback guy?????” adding “Just saying … I’ve got previous experience and will work for autographs.”

Based on what Stewart has said and hints from executive producer Michael Chabon, the new Picard show will be set in the year 2399, or 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. McAvoy is currently 39 years old, or about 10 years younger than Stewart was when he originated the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While McAvoy’s comment is somewhat in jest, it is not unreasonable to think that this new series will cover events in the life of Picard and the Federation before 2399 and possibly before his time on board the USS Enterprise-D. TNG provided a good amount of information on Picard’s backstory, including his family and upbringing in France, his time at the Academy and some of his Starfleet postings.

Younger versions of Picard have been portrayed by three other actors: David Tristan Birkin played Picard at age 12 (“Rascals,” plus he played Picard’s nephew René in “Family”), Marcus Nash portrayed Ensign Jean-Luc Picard (“Tapestry”), and Tom Hardy played his young clone and was shown as a photo of Picard from the Academy (Star Trek: Nemesis). Of course, Stewart also played his younger self in “Tapestry,” through the magic of Q.

More are ready to for Picard show

McAvoy isn’t the only one inspired by Stewart’s writers’ room reveal. Amy Berg, a writer and executive producer on sci-fi shows including Eureka, 4400 and Counterpart, responded to Stewart’s tweet with “The thing this room is missing is me.” Phil Plait, the astronomer and popular blogger, also chimed in, suggesting the show could use a science advisor.

Someone who could very well end up working with Stewart on the show is his Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes. The former Riker actor directed Stewart in a number of episodes and two feature films, and he has already directed three episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, so he is clearly in the orbit of Alex Kurtzman and the other executive producers. It’s notable that Frakes was the only TNG co-star to respond to Stewart’s tweet. His message was a simple “Engage…”

We recently reported that Stewart’s TNG co-stars Micheal Dorn, Marina Sirtis, and Gates McFadden were all in the dark about what was going on with the new series, even after a TNG reunion dinner with Stewart earlier this month. As of a couple of weeks ago, the TNG actors had not been contacted about the new show.

One Star Trek actor who did respond to the Stewart writers’ room tweet was Star Trek: Voyager’s Garrett Wang (Harry Kim). He shared the tweet with his followers with the simple message “Congratulations @SirPatStew So excited for you!” After the news of the show first broke in August, Wang answered a fan’s query saying he would love to reprise the role of Harry Kim.

Fingers crossed. I would love the chance to reprise the role of Harry Kim one more time:) https://t.co/sIn9lXrQSS — Garrett Wang (王 以 瞻) (@GarrettRWang) August 7, 2018

Keep up with all the news on the Picard show and other upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.