Culture 4 min read By Lauren Baxter
James McAvoy Says He Pitched a Young Picard Star Trek Series
James McAvoy revealed he developed a Star Trek limited series called Mutiny On the Stargazer about a young Jean-Luc Picard, joking that playing a younger Patrick Stewart is all he really wants to do.
James McAvoy has revealed that he once pitched a Star Trek series centered on a young Jean-Luc Picard, the character made famous by Patrick Stewart. The actor said the project was titled «Mutiny On the Stargazer» and that he came close to getting the limited series made.
The pitch places McAvoy in the same position he occupied in the X-Men franchise, where he played a younger version of a role originated by Stewart, Professor Charles Xavier. In that series of films, McAvoy portrayed the mutant leader in his earlier years opposite Stewart's older incarnation, a dynamic that gave the younger actor a direct working connection to the veteran performer's most recognizable characters.
McAvoy framed the Star Trek idea with a joke about his ambitions, saying that playing a young Patrick Stewart is essentially all he really wants to do. The remark leans on the unusual niche he has built: stepping into roles that Stewart first defined, then finding his own interpretation of them.
Picard is one of the most enduring figures in the Star Trek universe. Stewart played the captain of the USS Enterprise-D and later the Enterprise-E across seven seasons of «Star Trek: The Next Generation» and four feature films, from 1987 through 2002. He returned to the role decades later for the Paramount+ series «Star Trek: Picard», which ran for three seasons and concluded in 2023.
The proposed title, «Mutiny On the Stargazer», points to an early chapter of Picard's fictional career. The Stargazer was the starship Picard commanded before the Enterprise, and a mutiny aboard that vessel is part of the character's established backstory. A limited series built around that period would have explored the future captain before the events of «The Next Generation».
McAvoy did not indicate which studio or producers he approached, or why the project ultimately did not move forward. His comments suggest the idea advanced far enough to be discussed seriously, but no further details about scripts, casting, or a timeline were disclosed.
The actor's connection to Stewart's characters has been a recurring theme in his career. He played the young Charles Xavier in «X-Men: First Class» and several sequels, sharing the screen with Stewart in «X-Men: Days of Future Past», where the two versions of the character appeared together. That film gave McAvoy a direct on-screen encounter with the man whose roles he has repeatedly inherited.
Star Trek remains one of the most active franchises in television, with multiple series in production across recent years. A Picard prequel would have joined a lineup that has drawn heavily on the franchise's history, revisiting established characters and eras. Whether such a project could still materialize is unclear; McAvoy presented the pitch as a past effort rather than an active plan.
For now, the revelation adds a curious footnote to both McAvoy's filmography and the broader appetite for Star Trek stories set before the familiar timeline. It also reinforces the actor's willingness to revisit the roles of a performer he has openly admired, even if this particular voyage never left spacedock.
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