Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Finale – "The Last Generation"Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas details how the shocking cameo by Q (John de Lancie) in the season 3 finale's end-credits scene came together. "The Last Generation," which Matalas wrote and directed, wonderfully wrapped up the saga of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But while Picard's series finale also set up the future of the 25th century, the return of Q in the Picard finale end-credits scene and his interest in Picard's son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), is a new version of a classic TNG paradigm.
Screen Rant joined a roundtable interview with Terry Matalas, who was asked about John de Lancie's comeback as Q. Matalas explained that he came up with the idea for Q to return while filming the end of Star Trek: Picard season 2. Terry, who is "dear friends" with John de Lancie, pitched his idea and the actor said, "Yes… I'll be back." Matalas then detailed how Q's cameo in the season 3 finale end-credits scene was filmed. Read his quotes below:
Terry Matalas: We only had 20 minutes to shoot the scene. So we literally got him in, got him in that amazing outfit, [and he] came in. I mean, he's phenomenal on his worst day. And we just banged it out. And so, I still get chills. I love that scene so much. It's one of my favorite scenes in the finale.
We literally shot it during the same scene in which Picard tells Jack he's a Borg [in episode 9]. It was early, we wrapped Patrick, and we quickly changed the lighting scheme, so it's warm. That's why it's still kind of foggy. And we went, "Go go go!" because we had no time. How cool does he look in that costume?
