James McAvoy spent a good chunk of his acting career playing a young version of Patrick Stewart‘s Professor Charles Xavier in the string “X-Men” prequels starting with Matthew Vaughn‘s “X-Men: First Class.” The British actor is currently promoting the “Sandman” podcast and revealed to Collider that he’s still itching to play “Star Trek” captain, Jean-Luc Picard. Another sci-fi role made famous by Stewart.
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“I’ve often talked about loving ‘Star Trek,’ and jokingly, but also kind of seriously been like, if you ever want to do a young Jean-Luc Picard, I’m your man. But I’m probably getting close to being too old to do a young Jean-Luc Picard now. So there’s that,” McAvoy told Collider.
It’s worth mentioning that he’s not wrong that time is running out to be playing young Picard, as Patrick Stewart was 47 when they shot the first season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and James McAvoy is currently 42. Basically, it feels like he’s long missed out on the time period that Picard had hair.
Patrick Stewart is still playing the beloved character in the revival series “Star Trek: Picard” on Paramount+ and doesn’t seem to be giving up the role anytime soon.
When and where that would actually take place isn’t known as there doesn’t seem to be any plans for tackling a young Jean-Luc Picard, unless there is a reason for that idea to be covered in “Picard” or some other protect as Paramount+ seems hellbent on milking “Star Trek” with endless shows.
McAvoy wouldn’t be the first one to attempt to play a younger version of the Federation Captain.
Interestingly enough, one of Tom Hardy‘s (“Venom: Let There Be Carnage“) early roles was playing a young Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: Nemesis.”