Picard’s surprise cameo leads to a ridiculous MCU crossover

Picard Season 2 Episode 4 spoilers to come.

Star Trek likes to boldly go where no one has gone before, but prepare yourself because we’re about to blow your mind to a new level of absurdity that perhaps no fan theory has entered before. While that doesn’t mean it can’t be true…

The theory in question begins with Picard’s final episode of Season 2 entitled “Watcher”. With our beloved team scattered throughout 2024, in this episode, Seven and Raffi have to use public transportation to find Rios. It’s a bumpy ride, unhelped by the presence of an annoying punk proudly blasting his music on the bus.

But this isn’t just any punk. As anyone who loved Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home can recall, this is actually the exact same character we last saw in the 1986 film. And yes, he’s still being played by the same actor, Kirk Thatcher, almost four decades later.

Amazon Prime

If you’re a really die-hard fan, you might also have noticed that the punk is dropping a new version of his song “I Hate You,” now called “I Still Hate You,” which might be Star Trek’s best and most geeky callback ever pulled through.

Back in the 80’s, Spock used a Vulcan nerve to shut the guy up, but here Seven’s plea to “stop the noise” will suffice instead. And while it’s true that he’s softened with his age, it’s also possible this punk realized how similar that request sounded to the words Admiral Kirk used against him in the ’80s.

Even though this version of Thatcher’s character didn’t meet Kirk and Spock due to all the shaky timeline dealings in Picard’s second season, those echoes may still have instilled a certain “time sickness” — similar to what young Guinan experienced hearing words that were uttered by her future self.

That might explain why the punk is so willing to do Seven’s request and come to terms with us, because that’s actually the key to where we’re going to end up.

Executive producer and co-showrunner Terry Matalas essentially supported this idea during a recent chat with TrekMovie:

“Technically, Star Trek IV wouldn’t have happened in that alternate timeline, but maybe ONE part of him remembers his encounter with Spock in the prime timeline. And it made me smile that he would face Seven of Nine.”

Amazon Prime Video

Oddly enough, these aren’t the only two timelines in which we’ve encountered Thatcher’s punk. Before reprising the role in this new episode of Picard, Kirk played the same character in Spider-Man: Homecoming of all things.

“How did it happen?” we hear you gasp. Well, Marvel’s head honcho Kevin Feige is a huge Star Trek fan, so he asked Thatcher head-on if he’d like to quickly fill in for a cameo in the final days of filming.

“I arrived in Manhattan around 1:30 a.m. and my call time was 4:30 a.m. the same day,” Kirk tells StarTrek.com. “So I slept for a few hours, took a cab to the set and brought my own wardrobe. They made me look a little scruffy and the whole thing was done by 11:30 that morning! So it was really just about 48 hours from Wednesday afternoon when he asked me if I was interested until Friday noon when we finished shooting the scene!”

While it’s safe to assume that this cameo was just meant to be a funny Star Trek reference, Thatcher hints that the two punks are one and the same in this interview:

“The reason this all happened is because Kevin is a huge Star Trek IV fan and he told me he was a huge fan of the punk scene. So, I think it just tickled him to take on this character 30 years later! I hope this turns into a long line of ‘Punk on the…’ cameos that can fund my early retirement.”

We know we’re reading too much into it. We’re fully aware that these two punk characters aren’t actually supposed to be the same person. Except: what if they are? What if the “I Hate You” guy actually transcends time and space?

Amazon Prime Video

listen to us Thatcher’s punk is the only character to have appeared in both Star Trek and Marvel films — at least on screen. There have actually been multiple crossovers between the X-Men and various Starfleet officers in comics and books alike. But nothing like this has ever happened on screen. Still.

We know that the punk character exists across multiple timelines, and Picard’s version seems to be aware of this, at least on a subconscious level. When you factor that in alongside Spidey, who just broke through the multiverse (in No Way Home), there’s more potential for the two on-screen franchises to cross over than ever before. In fact, they may have already given Thatcher’s role in both.

And no, we don’t stop there. After all, who else is going to join the party when Marvel grapples with all this multiverse madness in the new Doctor Strange movie? Patrick Stewart, of course, who we assume will first take on the role of Professor Xavier in an MCU.

But what if that’s not all? What if Charles Xavier meets Jean-Luc Picard in the Doctor Strange sequel in what might be the most ridiculous crossover of all time? We don’t deserve Patrick Stewart x 2, but here we are thinking about it anyway.

Logistical concerns aside, we can freely concede that a meeting like this would be extremely fortuitous, not to mention unlikely. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if Multiverse of Madness hides at least a few more secrets that haven’t been revealed by the promos yet…

So, in this theory, the key to Stewart Squared is the punk, whose existence in these various franchises could somehow bridge the gap when it all falls apart. And what good is a punk if not to rebel? When Wanda breaks the rules, she becomes “the enemy,” but maybe there’s room for Kirk’s punk to become the hero in it all and make our wildest fanboy dreams come true.

That might sound bold even for Star Trek, but we would have said the same thing about a Ricky and Morty crossover starring Picard, and look where we are now.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 airs on Thursdays Outstanding+ in the US and on Fridays Amazon Prime Video In the United Kingdom.

Star Trek – Picard: The Classic Chronicles

Titan Comics Amazon

£7.19

Star Trek Borg Cube Advent Calendar

Eaglemoss Collections

£119.99

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

Paramount Home Entertainment Amazon

£69.99

Jean Luc Picard’s autobiography

Titan Books Amazon

£7.29

Star Trek: Picard Special Edition

Titan Comics Amazon

£14.99

This content is created and maintained by a third party and imported to this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may find more information about this and similar content on piano.io