Star Trek: Picard's Ed Speleers Would Gladly Play Jack Crusher Until He Retires
This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard."
The bulk of the third season of "Star Trek: Picard" was devoted to the mystery of Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), the son of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). At the beginning of the story, Jack was being hunted by a mysterious bounty hunter named Vadic (Amanda Plummer) who was willing to kill everyone on board the U.S.S. Titan-A in order to get him. While Jack was indeed a criminal, his crimes weren't entirely serious. Mostly, he and his mother merely smuggled medical supplies to planets overlooked by Federation doctrine. Why was Vadic so hellbent on apprehending him?
By the end of the season, it was revealed that Jack had inherited from Picard a curious brain condition that manifested as superhuman powers. He could read thoughts, and he could project his consciousness into the bodies of others. This was, it seems, the result of a gene placed in Picard's brain by the Borg decades before. Using Jack's brain, a re-emerged Borg Queen (voice of Alice Krige) was able to infiltrate a fleet of Starfleet vessels and attack Earth. Worry not. A 105-year-old Picard, in command of a reconstructed Enterprise-D, charged to the rescue. The day was saved.
In an epilogue, Jack was in a Starfleet uniform, having been fast-tracked through Starfleet Academy, and is already awaiting his first starship assignment. His first job will be on-board the Enterprise-G, which was merely the Titan-A rechristened. There was every reason to assume that the new Enterprise would be the subject of a new potential "Star Trek" spinoff series called "Star Trek: Legacy."
Speleers himself admitted in a recent interview with Collider that nothing would make him happier than to see "Legacy" come to fruition. He's happy to make Jack Crusher his career.
The Paramount+ era
When CBS All Access (later Paramount+) launched in 2017, it dove headlong into "Star Trek" in a big way. A huge spate of Trek shows is currently operating on the network, each one taking place in a different place on the vast "Star Trek" timeline. "Star Trek: Discovery" took place a few years prior to the original series, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" took place shortly after the events of "Star Trek: Voyager," and the new season of "Picard" is set about 20 years thereafter. This time-spanning approach has allowed the various Trek showrunners to dig into every last chapter of Trek history for nostalgia, callbacks, and guest appearances. Shows like "Picard" have included any number of Trek actors returning to roles they abandoned years before.
Speleers seems to know that "Star Trek" is a long-game career choice, and that he could very well be playing Jack Crusher for decades. This is a fate he is perfectly fine with. He said:
"[Jack] just resonated with me. I joked to someone the other day: I was like, 'I just want to play Jack Crusher for the next 15 years and then retire.' I feel like there's so much storytelling to do with him."
Even if "Star Trek: Legacy" is not made, there's every reason Jack — or a descendant played by Speleers — could show up on any number of other Trek shows.
Speleers also feels that Jack is too complicated a character to merely leave "mature." Like all of us aging coots, he didn't merely grow to a certain point and then stop. The character, one might find, is still young enough that further growth is required. Speleers wanted to continue his exploration.
The Jack of tomorrow
The actor said:
"I just feel he's so complicated, and who knows what the future holds, but I think within that storytelling, I don't want it to be such a clean break as, 'Okay, he's dealt with everything now.' You still want that emotion because that's what we enjoy seeing. You want to see people that can ... You live everything they live, I suppose that's what you want."
It's worth noting that "Picard" featured a Marvel Cinematic Universe-like teaser for a show to come. While on board the U.S.S. Enterprise-G, the playful deity Q (John De Lancie), previously assumed to be dead, appears to Jack and lets him know that he will become the subject of Q's constant testing of humanity. Jack, less mature and diplomatic than Picard, will likely respond to Q's threats, tests, and gambols quite differently than his elderly father. If "Legacy" picks up where that stinger left off, then there is already plenty of adult exploration waiting for the character.
Also, what better way to assure career security than hooking into a long-running media franchise like "Star Trek?" Jack may be an interesting character worth exploring, but, more than that, he's a central figure in a vast, interconnected mythology with decades of history. Being a central part of the "Star Trek" universe isn't a bad place to be in.