Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen enjoyed a sweet reunion at the 'Star Trek: Picard' premiere
Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen are friendship goals epitomised.
The acting titans, who were first paired together on screen in 2000’s X-Men and have become firm friends ever since, reunited last night at the glitzy UK premiere of Stewart’s new Amazon Prime Video show Star Trek: Picard.
Sir Patrick Stewart was the star attraction of the event, returning to his iconic Star Trek role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for the first time since 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, and the fans were thrilled to see the 79-year-old in town for the launch.
No-one was more excited to see him though than Sir Ian McKellen and the pair made a beeline for each other as soon as they spotted each other on the white carpet.
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After warm hug, Stewart – who lives in New York with his singer-songwriter wife Sunny Ozell – adjusted London-based McKellen’s cravat, exchanging pleasantries with his 80-year-old chum.
They continued with their PDAs when Stewart stepped up unto the premiere’s podium, with McKellen joining him as the pair posed for photographers together. McKellen kissed his old chum on the lips, before jokingly dropping to one in knee with a mock proposal.
McKellen famously officiated the nuptials between Stewart and Ozell in 2013, and the pair often share photographs of themselves together when McKellen visits Stewart in New York.
Coney Souvenir! #gogodididonyc @TwoPlaysInRep pic.twitter.com/0YUN89b1tV
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) October 2, 2013
One iconic 2013 photo of the pair showed them posing together at Coney Island in a frame that read “homies forever”.
Star Trek: Picard will debut on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, 24 January. It picks up the story of Jean-Luc Picard, years after stepping down as the Captain of the Starship Enterprise in the wake of a huge humanitarian disaster.
He’s enjoying retirement, living on his family’s French vineyard when a mysterious stranger arrives on his doorstep setting him on the path to a new adventure.
“In a sense I feel like I’ve been preparing to shoot Star Trek: Picard for the last 30 years,” Stewart said at a cast Q&A last night. “He has a quality about him unlike any acting experience I’ve ever had. The last thing I wanted or needed was to return… two days later 35 pages turned up and I was [he sighs] hooked…They were talking about a vision of Star Trek I had never imagined before.”
Jeri Ryan who returns as Star Trek Voyager’s Seven of Nine in Picard said: “I thought I had said goodbye to her 20 years ago. It never occurred to me that it would happen, and I’m thrilled that it did”
Cast walking the ‘white’ carpet last night included Sir Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Michelle Hurd, Jeri Ryan, Evan Evagora, Harry Treadaway, Jonathan Del Arco and Executive Producers Michael Chabon, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Kirsten Beyer.