Actress and Star Trek superfan Rosario Dawson has been getting a lot of buzz lately for potentially showing up in the next season of the Disney Plus Star Wars series The Mandalorian, but she still has not given up her longtime dream of being in Star Trek. And she has latched on to a new idea about who she can play.
Dawson wants to join the continuum
Yesterday Rosario Dawson was the guest on the Variety’s After-Show talking about her arc on the USA drama Briarpatch. But the conversation turned to the recent reports that she will be appearing in the second season of the live-action show The Mandalorian as Ahsoka Tano, a character created for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Dawson wasn’t able to confirm she had the role in hand, saying “that isn’t confirmed yet, but when that happens I will be very happy.”
Dawson credits Star Wars fans with making the potential Mandalorian casting happen, and while she was talking about Star franchises, took the opportunity to once again pitch herself for the final frontier:
I’m hoping, and I’m not trying to be greedy, but since we are talking about Star Wars and we are talking about fan-casting, if I get Mandalorian it is a million and one percent because of fans, also the Star Trek, okay. That’s it. I am just putting it out there. The two universes: Star Trek and Star Wars. I get in those two, I am telling you, that’s it. I will just retire.
Rosario Dawson in publicity photo for Briarpatch
TrekMovie first reported on Dawson’s love of Star Trek back in 2007 when she spoke Klingon on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The actress has publicly raised her hand to be considered for a role in Trek numerous times during the development of the three J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek features, including saying in 2010 she would “do anything” to be in a Star Trek movie, and later suggested portraying a “sexy Vulcan.” Shortly after CBS announced a new series centering on Jean-Luc Picard, Dawson again made a plea, suggesting she had the perfect amount of forehead to play a Klingon.
Speaking to Variety yesterday, Dawson made it clear she is not picky and would take any part, even one without lines, but her Star Trek-loving family has her hoping to land a more iconic role:
I was thinking that I know people who do makeup on it and I could just be a background Romulan or Vulcan or whatever. It would be so fun to just throw me in there. I could just walk through as a Klingon. Just something in the background. And my brother got really mad and said “absolutely not!” I was thinking I could just be a red shirt, who always get killed. He was “No! We talked about this. You have to be a captain!” He plays the Star Trek Online game and does missions and thinks I have to at least be a captain. But then my dad said I should be Q. Because male Q, female Q, young Q. They are all just Q. It’s the Q continuum. It would be great. Then I could jump on Discovery and I can be on Picard. I just want to be on with Jean-Luc Picard.
Dawson is correct about the god-like race known as the Q. The first Q was originally portrayed in the series premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation by John de Lancie. But in later episodes from the franchise, a number of actors have also played members of the Q continuum, and all are referred to as “Q.” Actress Suzie Plakson played a female Q in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “The Q and the Grey.”
Suzie Plakson as Q along with John de Lancie as Q and Kate Mulgrew as Capt. Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager
Dawson has been acting for over two decades including appearing as the character Claire Temple five recent Netflix series set the Marvel Universe. She is currently filming the HBO Max post-apocalypse film DMZ. Maybe the people behind CBS’ Star Trek Universe can find a place for her, and if not them, perhaps Noah Hawley can find something for her to do in his Star Trek movie.
Rosario Dawson at NBC press tour in January 2020 (Getty)
Watch Dawson talk Star Wars, Star Trek and more
Variety’s full After-Show episode with Dawson can be seen below.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.com.
Dawson would be perfect as Q. Make it so!
This needs to happen! Perfect casting in my opinion. Make it so indeed.
Hear! Hear!
Rosario Dawson as Q sounds like a interesting idea.
She will be in The Mandalorian season 2 as Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka Tano is one awesome character. I watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars and she is great.
Both shows are on Disney+ if you guys are interested in Star Wars content.
I love Star Trek and Star Wars equally. Star Wars fans and Star Trek fans don’t get along with one another. They are very passionate about what they believe.
If Dawson is Q in Picard or Discovery she has my blessing.
So far, Ahsoka has been a “strong female character” done right.
Loved her stand-off with Darth Vader in “Rebels” especially.
She’s good and I think it highly unlikely new Q would have the same attitudes and values as the original. Had they been consistent with Picard, it would have been interesting to watch Q roast Jean Luc for his self-righteousness about humanity. She’s good, but not something I need to see.
Yes please!
How about no Q and we get new stories. Call me nuts I guess.
Retcon… it’s what’s for dinner!
What Retcon CJA?
This seems to be the kind of comment that takes it that nothing important ever happened in the Trek Prime Universe unless we’ve been shown it already. And in this case we have!
We’ve known that John Delancie’s Q was just one of a continuum since Encounter at Farpoint. And we’ve seen several Q over the years (arguably even in TOS).
So, there’s no reason that there could not be others to interact with humanity. We shouldn’t take Q’s word for it that he’s the only one with an interest in humanity or the Federation.
Yeah, no thank Q.
New stories are good, and one of them can be about Rosario Dawson as a Q.
Blah blah blah. The melodramatic anti-Trek sentiments on this site’s forums lately are tiresome.
Plus, your point is moot anyway since Q stories and new stories are not mutually exclusive.
If you are nuts for wanting that then I am too.
So here for Dawson in Star Trek but I think as a Q, well that might just be perfect. She has that lovable with an edge thing already. But I also think she’d make a really badass Romulan.
As our (now synth) captain would say “Make it so”
Can they cast her as Michelle Burnham? A correction to the train wreck of a character that is Michael Burnham? Just retcon her.
You sound like a Midnight’s Edge fan.
Yes please.
Sounds like you are triggered by a female presenting character with a traditionally masculine name.
Perhaps triggered by an actress who, while fine on TWD, in this particular case ‘keeps missing the target,’ probably owing at least in part to inferior material and inconsistent direction.
Honestly, why has TREK ignored these pleas for so long? Rosario is not Sean Young assaulting producers to get cast in BATMAN sequels. I’m guessing on the Abrams movies that maybe it would make their Uhura actress insecure to have Rosario around, but she does usually project a screen persona that would translate well to 23rd century, and probably 24th as well.
Love the way you’re both suddenly using the word “triggered” in every post after it was effectively used against you yesterday.
who are you again, and why should I care?
The writing is the problem with Burnham – not the acting
Exactly. SMG is a talented actress. But as to the writing, you can’t polish a turd, as the saying goes.
As they say, “if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage”
Donald?
Go away. Your negativity isn’t needed here.
His rationality is exactly what’s needed here.
There’s nothing rational about fanbaby whining.
Is not right and respectful what you are saying Lukas. The actress is not to blame for Discovery’s bumpy start.
Not a bad idea except the problem with Burnham goes way beyond who is playing her.
So long as Q didn’t serve as some deus ex machina, but he never really has. He seems disinclined to be so.
This sounds interesting. But as we’ve already seen multiple Qs, it might be a bit confusing, unless she consciously aped some of De Lancie’s mannerisms.
Well I would assume that John De Lancie would at the very least cameo to set up the new Q if they did go down this route.
We have already seen multiple Qs, so not sure why it would be confusing to see more?
It would be confusing if she was to be the *same* Q as the original.
ok so if someone from these shows don’t hit her up they are crazy…
She’s been badgering to get into Trek for years and still nobody has took her up on it. At the very least they could test the water with a Short Trek.
yeah… they could do so much stuff with the short treks and names who wanna do trek… on a side note the short treks really can be a window into other past trek shows… let’s do one with quark or kira or whoever from voyager… they can easily do this… short personal stories where some of these characters are
And it’s funny that Berman & Co. jumped over backwards to find a place for Whoopi.
Yes, but not now. Let’s save it the inevitable special 10-episode event in which Q straightens all the tangled-up timelines (therefore invalidating everything after First Contact), turns Kurtzman, Goldsman and Abrams into Three Wise Monkeys, locks them up in a yellow VW Beetle and imprisons them beyond the event horizon of the Andromeda Galaxy core until they learn how to write a coherent and respectful story set in someone else’s pre-established world. :P
If he’s straightening up timelines, First Contact gets erased too, given the time travel shenanigans involved.
So does Trek 4, and the Federation just gets obliterated by the whale probe.
Hell, everything after “The Naked Time”‘s final scene gets erased.
You apparently don’t know what the term “inevitable” means, as what you’re describing is not remotely inevitable.
Well, here is another suggestion. She we have quite a few shows in development now, they could get her in one of those shows. I think she could work in that Section 31 show, maybe as some sort of nemesis to Georgiou.
There’s a difference between having a background cameo and taking over a recurring role. She seems to have other commitments so her time may be limited.
No thanks.
Probably unlikey now since she’s going to play AHSOKA TANO in THE MANDALORIAN.
Actors are know to be in more then one franchise you know.
Yeah, that would be as crazy as the same actress being in Star Trek, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Avatar. It’ll never happen.
I’m confused. Uhura isn’t green?
Well, sometimes Uhura is blue.
Not confirmed, according to Dawson; but it is a possibility, apparently.
Would be an excellent addition to any trek show. She actually would make a great klingon in the duras sisters mould!
I would like to play Q, too. And George Takei, too. Maybe Michael Dorn, too. Sounds like a great idea to me.
Let’s just hope your acting is better than your attempt at comedic sarcasm.
Thomas seems to think he has made a point.
He has not.
“Actress and Star Trek superfan Rosario Dawson…”
Rosario Dawson is a great actress. But what is a “superfan”, exactly? Is that someone who is more of a fan than a “regular” fan? What exactly makes her a higher level of fan than other fans?
I’m just a bland fan. Little interest in seeing old stuff dome over and over. Create a new character – after all, there are plenty of letters in the alphabet.
Given that she and members of her family are being sued for assaulting a trans man- putting her on either show- any ST show- for that matter would be totally inappropriate and would go against the lessons of equality and diversity at the very heart of Star Trek.
That’s a pretty shocking and surprising set of allegations Timpani. (I just looked it up.)
I agree that it would be important for there to be some resolution of the case, especially as the person making the accusations says that Rosario was present and participated in the alleged assault.
I do note that the claim is being made as a civil suit rather than criminal charge, which may say something about the evidence available.
This is kind of a slippery slope though, with that same logic then we must either never watch Star Trek The Motion Picture again because Stephen Collins is one of the stars or someone should digitally erase him from the whole film which would make the whole film incomprehensible. I know I will probably get tons of negative returns to this post, but I just want to show the bigger picture.
I think the difference is that when he was cast as Decker, it wasn’t well known that he had done anything wrong.
You do know that you can be sued without actually being guilty of anything, right?
Absolutely Bryant Burnette, that’s why I underscored that it was a civil suit, not criminal.
Given the LGBTQ+ positive emphasis of Trek, it could be important to resolve nonetheless just to avoid it becoming a distraction from Rosario Dawson’s work.
She’s fantastic. And since she’s over at Disney doing Star Wars already, maybe she can do us a real solid and bring Jon Favreau over to CBS with her to write both Trek shows….
Mmmm…she can be what ever she wants to be…
She’s great, but … Q? I don’t see it. I’d buy her as a captain, though.
Well written narrative > PC retcon pandering. Viewing figures don’t lie. Just ask the makers of Dr Who.
Sully, I believe that global viewing for Dr Who are higher than ever.
I’d check your sources again. The word ‘plummet’ is entirey appropriate.
Just because the slice of toast is bigger doesn’t mean you are using more butter to spread over it.
Can’t vouch for worldwide Doctor Who figures as I’m unsure if that’s true, if ratings are actually up or if it just happens to be in more markets, but it seems to be down in the UK and America.
BBC America’s figures dropped from last series’ figures. Based on what I’ve been able to find, the finale of series 12 was the lowest ratings of all the episodes that aired this year.
I’m been a huge Who fan since the mid-90s, but I haven’t bothered to watch this latest series. Whittaker was probably one of the few highlights of series 11, so she wasn’t the issue for me. Graham is the only good companion of the bunch, and probably in my top 3 since 2005. Series 11 was a bit of a breath of fresh air that the show avoided a lot of the continuous world-ending story lines that plagued a substantial number of stories in the previous few series. However, I found the writing to be poor, mostly because the messaging was all over the place from episode-to-episode and often too on-the-nose.
I’ve heard nothing positive about series 12 from people I know who watch the show, so I’m thinking about just skipping it entirely. Life is too short to waste watching something that I don’t have my heart in.
“Dawson has been acting for over two decades including appearing as the character Claire Temple five recent Netflix series set the Marvel Universe.”
Ummmmm…. what?
It took me a minute to decipher that one – I believe it should read, “Dawson has been acting for over two decades including appearing as the character Claire Temple in five recent Netflix series set in the Marvel Universe.”
Imagine the multiverse-ending threat storyline that would involve Q!
Maybe there’s a new race of super omnipotent beings from the fifth dimension that are hell bent on destroying all life that ever was and will be including imaginary and fictional characters – and Q needs to enlist Picard’s help to stop them by using his new android brain to find a new element that will reinforce the molecular bonds of existence across an infinite number of possible timelines!
*That* is the science power of maths, folks!
Also, how cool would it be if Q snapped and we get a Michael Burnham cameo! We know she was Picard’s hero at the academy!
Check out Kirsten Beyer’s Voyager Relaunch novels for some great Q content, and a Q-continuum-related threat to the entire multiverse.
I would LOVE this!
I mean I would love to see DeLancie reprise the roll just as much, but she would be outstanding. It’s such an ambitious character too so it’s not something you just show up to do, the writing certainly has to be there.
Sigh… Unless you wanted a light hearted romp they should leave Q completely out of it. Q only worked as comic relief. Apart from that he was pretty worthless.
Sign me up for a lighthearted romp then.
One might think so but for me, 10 episodes of Q in one season done right is still 9 episodes too many.
Well, it really doesn’t matter either way. I seriously doubt the current team in place could consistently deliver on 10 episodes of anything. Plus, their version of Q would probably be a nasty, dour, nihilistic mass murderer or something.
Unfortunately, I can see this happening with these bunch of producers. They would take all the wrong messages from Q’s original appearances. It is actually a character that is easy to mess up if you don’t do it right. You could end up offending many people or just make the character go too much one way or the other.
Agreed.
Yeah I would love to see Q back but I’m not pining for it either. And you’re right I would hate to see them mess Q up but I think they been better on most species. The only ones I thought they generally screwed up were the Klingons and they were a lot better with them in season 2 (at least they looked like them again ;)). I thought they handled the Romulans perfectly when you get away from the mustache twirling villains. But they actually gave them a layer none of the other shows had before. You can even argue the Borg was given a new layer (even if they still did nothing interesting with them story wise) so there are definitely positives.
Stick with DeLancie, yes? After his contributions to TNG he should get the chance to reprise his role.
As far as Dawson, I think that she isn’t espcially interesting as an actress; her best role is in Trance as it used her “blank slate” as a strength.
Now that I WOULD watch.
Q can be anything they want to be.
Make her “Captain Q”
Two birds, one stone. Think about it, CBS (or Paramount).
I’m happy with this as long as it was made clear she was “A” Q and not JD’s Q
I don’t even see the point of doing that. We seen multiple Q’s so I assume she would be her own.
Rosario Dawson as a Q!!!! Make this happen Kurtzman. That would be perfect! Can you imagine that casting news for Picard next season? It would probably be as big when we found out Seven and Data were coming back. And people REALLY want to see Q back. Yes they want John de Lancie himself but I think most will be happy to just see the species back and another actor’s take on them.
Star Wars fans are already drooling she’s playing one big popular character in the Mandalorian next season, so let’s go two for two now! And she can be one of the few actors who can brag about doing both Star Wars and Star Trek now.
Tiger2 you should watch The Mandalorian because that show is so good. Star Wars at its best. Sign up for Disney Plus while your at it.
She is very lucky to be part of Star Wars and Star Trek. Q suits her really well. Casting done right. Fans will rejoice with happiness.
You sound like she’s already been cast. She hasn’t.
Oh I definitely seen the Mandalorian. I was one of those people up at midnight (I’m always up at midnight though!) and watched it the minute it dropped, just like I did for Picard. I’m even thinking about doing a rewatch of the season since I haven’t watched it since it was done. And I still have Disney plus. Hell I still have All Access and I couldn’t tell you why lol.
Section 31? She could play an Operations Officer who has a knack for logistics, and communications.
Section 31 no thanks! Stay away from that rubbish lol. She could play Q in Picard so she can torment humanity for their sins.
She could be a good villain not a hero. A antihero is what I’m getting at.
If being a Q is not in the cards show wise, then just put her in SOME role. She said she would be willing to even do a walk on. It seems crazy this actress has been begging to be in the franchise for years and no one seems to take her up on it. Kind of like Tom Hands and Eddie Murphy (although they both almost got close at least). I’m not suggesting she should just be handed something because of her name but at least audition for a part.
Give her a character to play in any of the new Trek shows. She doesn’t have to be Q but that would be nice if that happens. Someone of her experience can take an offer they can’t refuse. Let her audition for a part.
Pass.
I think she could be potentially a good Q, however do you really trust Goldsman, Kurtzman and to some degree Chabon to write her well? John Da lancie for me i’m afraid – he is the Q.
No, no trust here, Unite.
What makes you think that they would write John De Lancie as Q any better than Rosario Dawson as Q?
If they will hire her you can bet that 200 years forward from now q will still not be over with American slavery and gender inequality 😂 ‘that’s for plantations! And that’s for inequal pay for women in the XX century!’
Love Dawson but there is only one Q and it aint her. Besides Picard and Discovery are terrible show, stop kidding yourself thinking they are real Star Trek, they are not.
Thanks for trying to treat your opinion as a fact. Sigh, some Star Trek fans, I swear.