LeVar Burton on Reprising His Role as Geordi La Forge in STAR TREK: PICARD Season 3 and How It's a "Pretty Rare Gift"

There’s a lot of excitement around Star Trek: Picard Season 3, and one of the main aspects of the new season that fans are looking forward to seeing is the reunion of several characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Data (Brent Spiner), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), and Worf (Michael Dorn) will be joining Picard (Patrick Stewart) on his latest dangerous adventure, that could cost him his life.

Burton’s Geordi La Forge has always been one of my favorite characters in the Star Trek franchise and the fact that he’s coming back at least one more time after all these years is super cool! During a recent interview with /Film, the actor was asked about Geordi's backstory, and Burton talked about playing the character and how satisfying it was:

"When I play a character, I always begin with who I am and discover those things that we have in common. And I think over time, I've been able to infuse more and more of LeVar into Geordi, and there's been a lot of Geordi that has bled into LeVar. I won't say that they completely blended, but I'm really familiar with this guy, Geordi La Forge. And the arc that [showrunner Terry Matalas] pitched me was one that was absolutely satisfying."

Burton went on to describe the opportunity to step back into the role of the character after all these years, saying:

"You have to remember, we didn't think this was ever going to take place. This is like, 'Wow.' It's been a couple of decades since we've donned these costumes and played these characters again. And the opportunity to do that with the additional 20 years of growth and development and the richness that we have mined in our personal lives, to be able to bring that to this experience, to these characters in this season of 'Picard' is a pretty rare gift."

The actor then went on to tease what Geordi brings to the story saying the Star Trek: Next Generation veterans "obviously have a lot of love and respect for each other, but they live different lives now." He Added: "I think that part of what Geordi's character brings is that reminder that we have a lot of history, but my priorities have changed."

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres on Paramount+ on February 16th, 2023.