Star Trek: Lower Decks Showrunner Mike McMahan discusses his desire to work Wesley Crusher into the series

A poor artists’ imagining of a young Wesley Crusher on the set of Star Trek: Lower Decks

MAY 24, 2021 - Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan wants to bring Wil Wheaton’s character Wesley Crusher onto the series at some point, but only if it makes sense to do so. Speaking with Cinema Blend in an interview published last week, McMahan shared his thoughts on some of the challenges in bringing back the Crusher character.

Bringing “legacy characters” back has been done before, and it will be done again: the first season saw several classic Trek characters making an appearance, and we’re expecting more of the same in season two. For McMahan, the difficult part in bringing any legacy character onto Lower Decks is making sure that their story not only fits within Star Trek canon, but that it doesn’t wildly change the arc of a character. McMahan told Cinema Blend, “You don’t want to take huge swings and affect stuff too much. You like to kind of dance in the margins. I talk about [Lower Decks] being kind of like the comic strips that were in the margins of MAD Magazine [...] we’re doing what we want - we’re having our fun, it feels like a fit - but we’re not taking away from anything else that you love about Star Trek.”

As far as bringing Wesley Crusher onto the series, McMahan said that he is still looking for an “elegant” way to make that happen. Part of this lies in the uncertainty of the character’s future. After Crusher left the Enterprise-D with the Traveler in TNG’s final season, audiences only see Crusher once more, in the opening of Star Trek: Nemesis, and nothing more is learned about the character and what became of him. That ambiguity may be McMahan’s back door into bringing Wesley Crusher back.

“I just love Wil Wheaton and I love that character and I would love to find a way to not step on what exists with that character,” McMahan said. Calling the earlier Star Trek series the “rule books” for writing Lower Decks, McMahan added, “As we grow, we have to be even more careful than ever before to not change stuff or retcon stuff. You know like, Beverly Crusher falling in love with a candle, that’s good for us! [...] Figuring out Wes [...] is still the thing I just need to wrap my head around and figure out how to do [it] right.”

The second season of Lower Decks is set to premiere in August, but you can catch up on the first season, available to stream now on Paramount+, or catch it on DVD, Blu-ray or limited-edition Blu-ray steelbook, from amazon.com or wherever you get your Blu-rays.