Actress Rosario Dawson is high on the list of celebrities who want to appear in Star Trek. It looks like she almost got her wish, but a franchise from a galaxy far, far away got in the way.
No changeling for Dawson
Rosario Dawson is a lifelong Trekkie—TrekMovie first reported her interest in landing a Star Trek role back in 2007. It looks like she almost got her wish, but playing Ahsoka Tano in the Star Wars franchise got in the way. The actress recently appeared at FAN EXPO Boston, and Trek was on her mind as she kicked off her panel with a Vulcan salute and told the crowd “Live long and prosper,” according to a report in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She revealed that while shooting the Disney+ series Ahsoka, she took a picture of herself in her Star Wars costume drinking a bottle of Earl Gray tea, and told the crowd ” “I’m definitely a ‘Next Gen’ girl. Captain Picard all the way.” However, she also revealed that the same show kept her from crossing franchises.
From the Telegram report:
Cracking herself up when she tells the audience it’s ok to “cross streams” when it comes to the “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” Dawson said she was asked to do something in the “Star Trek” universe but she just signed to do “Ahsoka” and she couldn’t do it.
“I could have been one of Odo’s species, the changeling. I could have been an immortal puddle guys. Do you understand my pain (she said clenching her eyes tight). That would have been really cool,” she insisted. “I also really pushed to be a ‘Q.’ My dad. That was my dad (donning a masculine voice and pointing to her dad in the audience), ‘Be Q.’ I’m like, I’m trying. Right? Then I can be, you know, annoying…cause chaos, which I love.’”
It’s not entirely clear which Star Trek production Dawson is referring to. After having played the part of Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian, Dawson signed on for her own Star Wars spin-off series in late 2020. Earlier in 2020, Dawson had said she thought it was possible for her to “cross the streams,” and was hoping for a part in Picard or Discovery.
In late 2020 multiple Star Trek TV productions were underway or about to start: the first season of Strange New Worlds, the second season of Picard, and the the fourth season of Discovery, which did include a non-speaking role for a Changeling in a single episode. Even though this was a minor role, the actress has said previously she would be willing to take even a background part just to get into Star Trek. The third season of Picard (which went into production in late 2021) did feature a Changeling storyline featuring Amanda Plummer as the main villain of the season, Vadic; however, TrekMovie has confirmed Dawson was not offered a role for season 3 of Picard.
Unnamed Changeling in Discovery “All In” (Paramount+)
Ahsoka is expected to get a second season, so it doesn’t look like Dawson will be able to jump franchises in the short term. But hopefully, in the future she can follow in the footsteps of fellow Trekkie Paul Giamatti, who was recently announced as part of the cast of the first season of the upcoming Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Keep up with all the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
A great actress, wonder what DSC would have been like had she been cast in the lead role. I heard she was considered for that.
Ah drat! I would have LOVED her or Angela Bassett as Burnham. I did like SMG but she doesn’t hold a candle to those two.
No disrespect to Angela Bassett, who is bad a*$ on 9-1-1- and everything else she does, but she’s roughly 25 years older than SMG. I would love to see her in a prominent Trek role, but the role of Burnham was not for her.
Oh I agree. It would have had to be a very “different” Burnham. I still love the thought of her being a Trek leading lady.
Nothing wrong with having an older exec who grows into being captain,it’s not like only the young make stupid mistakes.
I remember some time before Fuller was announced as doing Discovery, he mentioned that his vision for a Star Trek series was Angela Bassett as the captain and Rosario Dawson as her first officer.
So I always imagined that when he was creating the Georgiou-Burnham relationship, those were the actors he had in mind originally.
Yeah, I recall Bassett’s name being dropped back then. That would have been a dynamic duo. I do love Michelle Yeoh though
Something tells me she was an early choice for Vadic, based on this. She wouldn’t be worth the cash required for a non-speaking part.
Really hope she gets a role at some point. I remember her talking about it years ago and how she’d be willing to be a silent background alien if it meant she got to appear in Trek.
That’s unfortunate. She was completely wasted on Ahsoka, which gave her nothing interesting to do. She’d be fantastic on Star Trek.
Yeah, I watched the first three episodes of the show and lost interest. Very plot driven and not much character wise for Dawson’s Ahsoka from what I saw.
it gets way better when certain characters appear later in the season…
I leapt ahead to episode 5 to see stuff with one of those ‘certain characters’ and it didn’t make much difference to me, I still found I was unable to get into the show. Saw a pretty well-done space battle undone by some silly jedi bladework, and then there were ingeniously nice other visuals, but overall just not enough. She was very good in the role when doing it on MANDO earlier on, so AHSOKA becomes another case where actor outshines the material for me.
This would have been extremely cool, but I’m SO grateful that were got her as Ahsoka. Maybe she’ll get another shot at being a Changeling down the line though.
Star Trek and Star Wars should merge into one franchise. So say we all !
Not quite all. But that does seem to be where it’s headed. For now
There is zero reason to think that’s where it’s headed.
Stylistically, they are becoming much more alike. The Ent D versus the Borg ship in Picard being like the Death Star battle in Return of the Jedi is just one of many examples, which is to be expected with JJ now involved with both franchises.
No offense but this is a really ridiculous argument. If you’re suggesting the Enterprise going against a Borg ship automatically means it’s turning into Star wars then its been Star wars literally since 1989 when Q Who premiered.
There was one guy here who made this same comparison to ROTJ over and over and over and over again. Hardly anyone agreed for a reason because A. it takes more than a ship battle in one episode to imply it’s suddenly Star Wars and B. You’re ignoring everything else that was presented that was purely Star Trek. And there has been nearly 200 episodes of modern Trek so far, there are probably maybe some episodes I can count on one hand I can kind of compare to Star Wars at best and Picard isn’t one of them.
As for Abrams, people made that claim against the first movie which had some validity but still very little and superficial IMO. The other two were very much Star Trek movies. People complained STID felt too much like TWOK than ESB lol. And Beyond was actually the most Trek-y out of the three. And he probably has very little to do with the movies creatively these days and just produce whatever decade the next one arrives.
But for some people just having large ship battles in space is Star Wars to them and makes zero sense considering that’s beens Treks MO since TOS.
Plus everyone knows the Millennium Falcon didn’t survive the Borg battle over earth in First Contact. That would have never happened in Star Wars :-)
‘don’t tell me the odds!’
That’s pretty funny, given that the FALCON actually is someplace in the background of that battle.
CFQ had an article about the ILMification of TREK during the 80s that I agreed with, that the designs in TSFS and TVH were way more SW than ST, with large solid shapes — like that blimp hangar in space they called a spacedock — replacing much more (to my eyes) impressive spaceframes and other uniquely built-in-space structures. The interior of spacedock sure looks a WHOLE LOT like the reactor in JEDI, so much so that I really wonder if it was the seem structure with slight changes. Would have thought Nimoy should nix it just on the basis of a sketch, given JEDI should have been fresh in everybody’s minds as this was happening.
ILM had its hands in areas it really had no business doing stuff for, like designing communicators and other props (their Klingon communicator was, as Vokar pointed out so long ago, pretty much just a heat sink.
Not sure how they skirted union regs on that, given that with TMP, even legit prop builders like Brick Price’s company got shut down in mid-spacesuit build owing to a Paramount staff union complaint that mold-making had to be done by a studio agency, not an outside firm. That call led to the disastrous early first space suit, the one lacking air conditioning and stinking of vomit that caused Nimoy or his double to pass out while hanging on wires for the first version — a scene later abandoned at a cost of nearly half-a-mil just in set construction alone — of the spacewalk.)
ST kind of turned into paramount’s answer to SW with the movies, even using ILM for its fx.
OMG did someone just say ROTJ??? I’m experiencing PTSD! 🤣
Yeah…
So say almost no one.
audentes Fortuna iuvat
In sixth grade I wrote a short story about Luke ending up on the Enterprise with Cylons on his tail and help from Twiki, the robot from Buck Rogers. Thus, it ends with a sex joke. Who says we can’t be in one universe?
LOL 😂 Oh god
I met her randomly about 10 yrs ago when I was walking down the street visiting Venice Beach. I knew who she was but tried to play it low key. She was sitting on a cement wall alone. Also knew at the time that she was a big TOS fan. She told me she started working for Marvel but couldn’t really say much else. She’d make a great captain.
She made the right choice.
I have no clue what you’re talking about. Money is only the right choice.
I love Rosario Dawson, but bringing her in for anything less than a lead role would be wasting the budget
Odd, I would have thought it was for Picard S3, but I read you guys confirmed that isn’t the case. Maybe they wanted the Founders as the baddies in the last Season of Disco instead of the Breen originally? There were certainly enough Dominion War references.
Yeah I don’t know where a Changeling could’ve appeared if it wasn’t Picard season 3. Maybe there was a character in Discovery in seasons 4 or 5 that was going to made specifically for her? Or even Picard season 2.
And maybe the idea was dropped later when she turned it down.
Yeah I’d bet it was a character or plotline that ultimately didn’t happen.
I guess she wanted the acting challenge of inventing new ways of crossing her arms and sighing.
every actor has a thing, makes for great drinking games
At least we finally know something has been offered to her. I would definitely take her as a Changeling but I think her being a Q would be much more fun.
She definitely dodged a bullet if it was for Discovery. Good for her.
I could see her as a Klingon in SNW or the Academy, or she could be an instructor at the Academy. It could be a recurring role and she could potentially film the two shows together. By the way, what acronym are we gonna use for the Academy show? I suggest STA.
With the caliber of casting that is going on with the Academy show, that could be a good showcase for Rosario Dawson. She could be an awesome Klingon, or a human, or anything really. I would watch Rosario Dawson playing a mineral deposit.
PUT HER IN ANYTHING STAR TREK – Rosario’s awesome.
Rosario Dawson!? A leading role, no less! She is very talented, a beloved actress, and a huge Star Trek Fan.
Maybe the alternative reality where she did trek is also the one where Bernie and al gore step up to take the reins after yesterday’s debate fiasco, and then somehow honorable folk win.