'Do You Really Want to Risk It?' Ian McKellen Recalls Warning Patrick Stewart About Star Trek

Sir Ian McKellen has recalled warning his long-time friend Sir Patrick Stewart that accepting the lead role in Star Trek could jeopardise his British theatre career. The actor revisited their conversation in an Instagram tribute posted on Thursday following Stewart's death at age 86.

McKellen remembered questioning whether Stewart wanted to risk spending years in Hollywood, advice he later acknowledged had been mistaken. Stewart went on to achieve worldwide fame as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a role that transformed his career and made him one of television's most recognisable science-fiction stars.

McKellen's Warning Over Stewart's Star Trek Role

McKellen, 87, said the conversation happened when the pair met by chance on a street in central London. Stewart had told him about an offer to lead a new Star Trek television series.

McKellen recalled urging Stewart to consider his British stage career. 'Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?' he asked.

At the time, Stewart was an established Shakespearean actor, with years of work at the Royal Shakespeare Company behind him. Moving to America for a science-fiction television series meant committing to a different career path, with no guarantee the programme would succeed.

Stewart accepted the offer and began playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. The series ran for seven seasons until 1994 and led to four films featuring its cast. The series attracted a worldwide audience.

In his tribute, McKellen welcomed the decision, writing that Stewart had taken the risk and that audiences had benefited from it.

Stewart's Star Trek Decision Changed His Career

The anecdote was already familiar to fans of the two actors. Stewart discussed it in his 2023 memoir, Making It So, recalling how McKellen strongly urged him against abandoning important theatre work for television.

Stewart believed the opportunity to headline an American series might never come again, whereas the stage would remain available to him. His judgement proved successful. Picard became one of television's most recognisable science-fiction characters, while Stewart later returned to the franchise in Star Trek: Picard.

He also continued acting on stage, appearing in productions of Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land alongside McKellen. The friends shared the screen as Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men films.

Their friendship extended beyond work. McKellen officiated Stewart's wedding to singer Sunny Ozell in 2013.

McKellen Pays Tribute Following Stewart's Death

Stewart died at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday. His spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, confirmed that he had lived with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, diagnoses that had not previously been made public.

McKellen's tribute also remembered Stewart's Yorkshire upbringing, his directness and his pride in serving as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. The actors first met through the Royal Shakespeare Company roughly half a century ago, although they did not initially perform together.

McKellen praised his friend's ability to return to major classical productions after finding international success, describing a career that crossed British theatre, Hollywood films and television. He also acknowledged Ozell's support during Stewart's illness and noted that audiences had yet to see his appearance in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday.