OCTOBER 20, 2021 - News that Brent Spiner would be returning for Star Trek: Picard season two may have ignited hopes that beloved android Data might not be gone forever after all, but those hopes were put to rest this month as the actor shared some not-so-subtle hints in an interview with the website inverse.com.

“I can tell you I’m not Data,” Spiner says definitively. Still, given Spiner’s numerous guest appearances on various Star Trek shows, perhaps he’ll still be returning as one of the other characters he’s played? Perhaps he’d be returning as Altan Soong from Picard season one? Or maybe he’d be playing Lore or B-4, Data’s android brothers? Perhaps his character Arik Soong from Star Trek: Enterprise would be making another appearance, or maybe even the legendary cyberneticist Noonian Soong, developer of the advanced positronic brain that led to Data and his brothers? Any chance it would be one of these? Once again, Spiner quells hope of any character reprise.

“I’m not playing a character I’ve ever played before,” he states, but not before revealing that he would be playing a member of the Soong family, just one who’s never appeared in a Star Trek franchise before.

There are many possibilities to consider when trying to decipher just who Spiner is playing in this next season, especially considering that Star Trek: Picard Season Two has been confirmed to involve time travel. Exactly what generation from the Soong family and what role that character plays in Jean-Luc Picard’s continuing adventures remains, for now, a mystery.

Until that mystery is solved, you can relive Spiner’s last performance as Data, along with his dual role as Altan Soong, in Star Trek: Picard Season One, streaming now on Paramount+.