Interview: Brent Spiner Talks Developing ‘Nemesis’ Sequel With Crossovers From “All The Star Treks” – TrekMovie.com – USFTB

Brent Spiner has had a big impact on Star Trek playing Data, the breakout character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, for seven seasons and four feature films. Data’s apparent death in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis seemed to be the end of his story until Spiner returned to play a new version of Data in the third season of Star Trek: Picard in 2023. TrekMovie had a chance to talk to Brent about his time with Data at the New York premiere of The Sixty-Year Mission Star Trek documentary, where we talked about the character’s legacy and the attempt at a follow-up movie to Nemesis.

The Nemesis sequel was going to have “everybody”

Spiner worked closely with his friend, Oscar-winning screenwriter John Logan, on the script for Star Trek: Nemesis, which got him a story credit on it. He and Logan had done some work on a follow-up film that would have worked as a sequel to Nemesis. When first asked about this concept, Spiner quipped:

“The only thing I can tell you, it was going to be fantastic.”

Spiner once described the concept as “Justice League of Star Trek,” involving characters from the throughout the franchise. At the documentary event, Spiner confirmed with TrekMovie the idea was to have “everybody” in it, clarifying the film would include characters from “all the Treks that existed at that time.”

He then went on to explain why it didn’t happen, while also revealing a bit more about the concept:

“Thing is, it was a pipe dream on our parts, because obviously nobody could afford to do that. Particularly not after my salary, they weren’t going to be able to. We we had an original script that we wrote that was rejected. It wasn’t the script. We had a story idea that involved everybody playing two roles, but alas, that this wasn’t to be.”

Spiner’s comment on “everybody playing two roles” refers to the plan for the film to involve the Mirror Universe and time travel.

Spiner also confirmed the Nemesis sequel project did get discussed at the executive level, but he was sanguine about it never moving forward:

“Yeah, we had meetings, and they said, ‘Nah, we don’t want to do that.’ And so that’s the way it goes.”

With the box office disappointment of Nemesis, it was no surprise Paramount wasn’t interested. Four years after the film’s release, Paramount announced they had hired J.J. Abrams to produce and direct a new Star Trek movie, moving the franchise in a new direction. Still, Spiner high praise for Logan (pictured below at Nemesis premiere in 2002) and his work on Star Trek:

“But we were really lucky. I know that [Nemesis] wasn’t a fan favorite, but we were really lucky to have John Logan writing it because I think John’s about the best screenwriter in Hollywood. I thought he did a wonderful job, actually.”

Embed from Getty Images

On Data’s legacy and what’s next

As the event was for a documentary about the history of Star Trek, we also got Spiner to talk about how he and Data fit into that legacy:

“My character was about exploring the human experience from the point of view of someone who had no humanity, who was not a human, and so he was able to investigate all these different aspects of humanity, and and hopefully tell us a little bit about what it is to be a human, even though he wasn’t.”

And with the franchise at a pivot point, he offered this bit of advice to whoever is tasked with telling new stories in the final frontier:

“Honestly, I would tell them go back and look at The Original Series, and do Star Trek because that’s what the fans want.”

These days, Brent has been teaming up with his old TNG castmate Jonathan Frakes for the podcast  Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny. They have had a variety of guests on the pod — most recently William Shatner — and Spiner told TrekMovie the big gets they are still hoping for:

“We want Emma Stone, and we’re going to get her. But there’s so many. Obviously, what we’re after are people who have longevity, have have stories to tell us. People they’ve met. Who have you met that just blew your mind that you you were with?… I’ll tell you what, I said to my wife today, I’d really like to get Dick Van Dyke on. Dick’s 101 in December, and I know him a little bit. I don’t think he’ll want to do it particularly, but but Dick, Mel Brooks, whoever is, you know, has some real solid years who have a billion stories, you know? We had Leonard Maltin on a couple of weeks ago, and Leonard was fantastic because he’s met everybody, and so that’s the kind of thing we’re looking for.”

You can watch the full Shatner chat below.

More Trek & NYCC 2026

The Sixty-Year Mission event was part of New York Comic Con week and we will have more interviews from the premiere and from NYCC. Check out our NYCC category for our earlier coverage on the Star Trek Universe panel, along with new toys and comic books announced this week, plus a new documentary.

You can check see The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and The World now, which opened last Friday in limited theaters. Tickets are available at Regal Theaters. For more info, check out Trek60.com.

Here is a new clip of different Trek actors talking about the legacy of the franchise.

Find more news on Star Trek documentaries.