A new rumor os making the rounds that Brent Spiner will be donning a Starfleet uniform once again for a guest appearance as Data in Picard.

From the moment CBS announced Star Trek: Picard and the return of Patrick Stewart as the iconic captain of the Enterprise, fans have had a wish list of who they want to see guest star. From any or all of the core cast of The Next Generation to Sisko from Deep Space Nine to more obscure characters, the list usually goes on and on.

But nine time out of 10, somewhere at the top of that list is Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data.

Data was easily the biggest breakout character from The Next Generation and gave fans some of the most cherished moments from the series and feature films. However, with Data’s death in Star Trek: Nemesis and Spiner’s often stated reluctance to play the part again due to the make-up and the fact he feels he is too old for the role, many thought we’d seen the last of the beloved android.

Well, it turns out that you should never say never.

A new rumor is making the rounds that Spiner will be suiting up as Data once again for a guest appearance on Star Trek: Picard.

The rumor comes from Matt Vernier of Revenge of the Fans and says that Spiner will be reprising his role as Data for the new series. While the specifics are very vague and the original story has now been pulled, just speculation that Spiner will take on the role of Data again is more than enough to get Trek Nation foaming at the mouth in excitement.

If it proves true and Spiner does appear on Picard, it may be thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it can happen.

Spiner has long said that he feels he has become too old to play an android that never ages, and while that is very true, there are ways around it. Earlier this year we talked about the possibility of recasting Data and while that didn’t prove popular with readers it is definitely an option.

What may be a better option is de-aging Spiner as Marvel does for their films. Captain Marvel was a great example of how CGI can be used to de-age an actor so they can play a younger version of themselves. Who’s to say the same technique couldn’t be used on Spiner? Sure, it wouldn’t be cheap but that’s part of the benefit of streaming; bigger budgets to do things exactly like this.

Of course, it should be said again that this is a rumor right now and could easily prove to not to be true. However, if this proves to in fact be accurate, CBS won’t be able to keep this under their hat for much longer.

Star Trek: Picard is set to debut later this year on CBS All Access. Keep it here on Redshirts Always Die for more about this story as it develops.