Jonathan Del Arco Clarifies His Role as the Borg “Hugh” in Star Trek: Picard

Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, and Jonathan Del Arco at San Diego Comic Con

One of the actors on stage at Comic Con’s Hall H this weekend was Jonathan Del Arco, who played the young liberated Borg Hugh in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although Del Arco was on stage, Hugh did not feature in the Star Trek: Picard trailer, which left some fans wondering about his role.

After the Hall H panel, the casts of the three Star Trek series made the rounds of several large media outlets. TrekMovie.com did an excellent roundup of all the most significant tidbits from those interviews, and one of the subjects they featured was Del Arco’s role as Hugh in Picard.

According to TrekMovie, Del Arco confirmed that his character has picked up from where we last saw him at the end of the episode “Descent, Part 2”. They quote Del Arco from an interview with TVLine, where he said, “I can confirm I am still part Borg and that I am a developed human version from the last time I saw [Picard], in which we were stranded on a planet and Lore was killed…as they are leaving the planet and I say ‘what are we going to do now, we have no leader’ and Picard says ‘I don’t think that’s true.’ The implication being that in TNG I end up with this colony of Borg and all I can say is he has developed further in his leadership capacities.”

TrekMovie also goes on to quote Del Arco from an IGN interview in which he implies that other liberated Borg could feature in the series as well: “[Hugh] is still strangely collective-minded. He cares so much for those around him that has kind of become a big part of his life. [...] Including Borg, without saying too much.”

Look out for more about Hugh’s role in Picard, I’m fairly sure, in the coming weeks.