Robert Beltran Refused To Revisit A Controversial Chakotay Arc On Star Trek: Picard
"Star Trek: Picard" burst onto the streaming scene in 2020, getting longtime fans of the "Star Trek" franchise caught up with one of their favorite captains, Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart). Of course, for this nostalgia-fueled last ride for the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" icon, he doesn't come alone. Fellow legacy characters like Data (Brent Spiner) and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) also appear throughout the show's three seasons. Robert Beltran's Chakotay could've joined these "Star Trek" alums, but he ultimately turned the project down and avoided revisiting a controversial arc from "Star Trek: Voyager."
On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Beltran revealed that he was offered to reprise Chakotay on "Star Trek: Picard." "I was offered an episode (first 2 then1) in Picard but I simply did not like what they had written for Chakotay so I turned them down. I won't go into detail but I have no animosity toward the Picard producers at all," the actor wrote. "Picard" Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas revealed that plans were in place early on to revisit Chakotay and Seven of Nine's (Jeri Ryan) romance. In an alternate universe, they got married and now lead the oppressive Confederation of Earth. Chakotay would've served as the story's main villain, which Matalas noted didn't sit right with Beltran, as he revealed to TrekMovie.
Considering how divisive Seven and Chakotay's romance has proven to be among "Stark Trek" fans, Beltran and the "Picard" team were wise to avoid exploring it further.
Star Trek fans didn't buy Seven and Chakotay's romance and still don't to this day
Chakotay and Seven of Nine strike up a romance during the waning days of "Star Trek: Voyager," and even as this arc unfolded, people didn't buy it. Though these characters have their fair share of fans, most agreed that pairing them up and pushing their relationship so heavily and suddenly was the wrong move. All these years later, viewers are still talking about it and expressing their frustration over how it panned out.
"How they both get together? When it started? All their romance seems to be totally rushed and forced. Totally unreal comparing to B'lana and toms relationship build up over seasons," wrote a since-deleted Redditor in a thread regarding Chakotay and Seven's surprise romance. In a separate thread on the topic, u/AboriakTheFickle agreed that them becoming a couple was rushed and expressed the belief that Chakotay lacked chemistry with everyone aside from Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).
As for Redditor u/faceintheblue, they felt the "Voyager" team simply came up with the romance angle for Chakotay's benefit. They commented in another thread, "Voyager was rapidly becoming the Seven and Doctor show, so they thought pairing Seven and Chakotay would help them broaden out an underdeveloped character." u/BurdenedMind79 also touched on the potential behind-the-scenes reason for the relationship, theorizing that it only came about to put Chakotay and Seven in specific narrative directions, and not because it was a natural fit.
Though Robert Beltran turned down "Star Trek: Picard," at least he was able to reprise Chakotay via "Star Trek: Prodigy" free of any romantic "Voyager" baggage.