He’s everywhere these days! Our favorite commander — who shoulda been a captain a long time ago — William T. Riker got to steal the finale of Star Trek: Picard. And since then, the man who brings Riker to life, Jonathan Frakes, has been speculating, sharing, and watching with Trek fans for about the past two weeks.
First, he disclosed that he used to appear as Captain America for Marvel. Wow! Riker as Captain America? That should have been a holodeck adventure! He even portrayed Cap with Stan Lee at the White House for President Carter.
Then, while on an interview with GalaxyCon, he answered a bunch of questions related to when he was a part of the “new” Trek, and how it took years for fans to warm up to The Next Generation. During that chat, he revealed that he thought many watched Discovery and Picard:
“They are watching to make sure they hate it,” he said.
Next, Frakes hosted an online watch of Star Trek: First Contact in partnership with IGN. First Contact is widely agreed to be the best of the Trek films featuring the cast of The Next Generation, and was directed by Frakes. Fans got to hear him chat about the ins and outs of the film in real time.
Speaking of his directing, Frakes just happened to direct two episodes of Picard — Absolute Candor and Stardust City Rag — and a few episodes of Discovery as well. He sat down with ComicBook.com’s Jamie Lovett and compared Discovery to Picard, and confirmed that he would be back directing Discovery (as we told you about a few weeks back).
“Discovery is a huge cinematic show on which you’re encouraged to sort of shoot to thrill,” said Frakes to Lovett in the interview. “I think [Discovery] is very much inspired by JJ [Abram’s] movies.”
“There’s no shortage of story over there, but you are really encouraged to … they give you time and money to shoot … more action, and there may be or there may not be more visual effects,” said Frakes. “There are more characters. The ship is bigger. There’s a lot of scope.”
Frakes said there was more of an intimacy on Picard, where it starts with Patrick Stewart and grows from there.
Catch the complete interview at ComicBook.com.
Both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard are streaming on CBS All Access
