Star Trek's New Guinan Actor Explains Her Relationship With Franchise

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Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 4.

The actor who has been cast to play a young Guinan on Star Trek: Picard reflects on her relationship with the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: Picard began its second outing in early March, and is now reaching the midway point of its ten-episode run before season 2’s finale hits screens on May 5th. Thanks to the reappearance of Jean-Luc Picard’s nemesis Q, Star Trek: Picard season 2 has been able to explore time travel and alternate timelines, giving audiences plenty of cameos and call-backs in the process.

Those cameos include a young Guinan, who is living on Earth in 2024 and running her 10 Forward bar in L.A. The El-Aurian bartender isn’t played by Whoopi Goldberg, however, and has been recast with Ito Aghayere taking on the role. The character appears in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 4, “Watcher,” when Admiral Picard is sent to the bar on his search for the elusive Watcher. As it turns out, a young Guinan, who doesn't recognize the old Starfleet Admiral, is closing down the bar and planning to leave Earth. After a frosty reception, and plenty of convincing, the character eventually helps to guide Admiral Picard toward the Watcher and, in turn, he attempts to convince her to give Earth another chance.

Related: Star Trek Theory: Picard's Watcher Has To Be Guinan, Right?

Now, in an interview with Variety, Aghayere has explained her relationship with the Star Trek franchise. The actor shared that, as she was growing up, Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of the only series she was allowed to watch as her “very conservative” family believed that Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard looked “really smart and intelligent.” Aghayere said that