LeVar Burton on filming Star Trek: Picard, season 3 and if he'll ever return to the role of Geordi La Forge

LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, was also the host of READING RAINBOW

JUNE 13, 2022 - Now that filming for the third season of Star Trek: Picard has concluded, actor LeVar Burton has been busy promoting Butterfly in the Sky. The new documentary will celebrate the legacy of the PBS series Reading Rainbow, which he hosted for more than two decades. Speaking in a new, in-depth interview with Yahoo, Burton reflected on the long-running series, but took a moment to tell audiences about his experiences coming back to the Star Trek franchise for the final season of Picard.

“It was an absolute blast,” Burton said of the third season. “It was so good to be together. I mean, we’re all very, very close anyway.” Even though the cast has not appeared on screen together in 20 years, that hasn’t stopped the cast of The Next Generation from being a part of each other’s lives. Having foregone a yearly holiday gathering as a cast, Burton told Yahoo “being able to get together at the end of last year and the beginning of this year (to film Picard) was really cool for us.”

According to Burton, the cast of The Next Generation had expected to make at least one more film together beyond Star Trek: Nemesis, released in 2022. Apparently, “things changed” and that film was never made. 

“And then to put on our space suits and play these characters again!” Burton said of returning to the role of Geordi LaForge. “We all thought the ship had sailed on a conscious goodbye [...] So this was a great gift to us. This season of Picard is a love poem to Next Generation and we get to see these people that we grew to know and even love at this new point in their lives.”

While in conversation, Burton let it slip that a very special guest is joining the cast of Picard in season three: his daughter, Mica Burton. “It was a lot of fun on so many levels,” he told Yahoo. “I also get to work with my kid: my daughter, Mica, plays one of Geordi's two daughters.” Burton went on to say, “the whole storyline really is about the next generation of The Next Generation in many respects.”

Burton says he is ready for Geordi’s storyline to come to an end. “If I never put a spacesuit on again, I'm good,” he told Yahoo, adding, “I feel like I got to put a period at the end of this sentence and close the book.” That being said, the actor made sure to leave himself a little wiggle room - just in case. “Now if the book opens again,” he said, “far it be from me to say no! [Laughs] But with all things being equal, I can honestly say — hand on my heart — if I never play Geordi for another moment in my life, I'm good.”

Check out the full interview with LeVar Burton at yahoo.com.