In Star Trek: Picard, Santiago Cabrera starred as the brooding ex-Starfleet Captain Cristóbal Rios. What comes next for the actor and character?
Summary
- Santiago Cabrera played Captain Cristóbal Rios in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard.
- Since Picard’s second season, Cabrera has appeared in various projects such as Godmothered, The Flight Attendant, and Undone, and participated in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes.
- Captain Rios is unlikely to return to Star Trek due to his decision to stay in the past and live out his days with Dr. Ramirez and her son.
Santiago Cabrera stars in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard as the mysterious Captain Cristóbal (‘Cris’) Rios and his assorted alter-ego holograms. Joining Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in season one as the rugged yet haunted Captain-pilot of La Sirena, Rios was instrumental in helping the “decidedly motley” rag-tag crew fight for and save the synthetic beings of the planet Coppekius from a Romulan attack in Picard season 1, simultaneously tackling some heavy personal emotional scarring in the process. In Picard season 2, now captain of the USS Stargazer, Rios joins Jean-Luc and his crew to travel back in time to prevent a dark, dystopian alternate reality from being realized.
Santiago Cabrera, a Venezuela-born Chilean-British actor, previously appeared on the BBC’s Lancelot in Merlin and as Aramis in The Musketeers. He starred as Isaac Mendez in Heroes, a troubled artist who captures visions of the future in his paintings, appearing alongside Star Trek actors Zachary Quinto and Greg Grunberg (from J.J. Abrams’ Kelvin-verse movies). He had a role in Haven (with Zoé Saldana) in 2004, Transformers: The Last Knight in 2016, and starred as Darius Tanz in CBS’ 2017 Salvation. Though Cabrera’s Star Trek character is unlikely to make a comeback in subsequent series, the actor has been busy with a variety of projects since Star Trek: Picard’s notable second season.
What Happened To Santiago Cabrera & Picard’s Captain Rios?
Santiago Cabrera appeared as Hugh in Godmothered in 2020 after Star Trek: Picard season 1, reprising his role as Cristobal Rios for Picard‘s season 2 in 2022. The same year, he took a recurring role in the second season of The Flight Attendant, appearing alongside fellow Star Trek actor Terry Serpico (Star Trek: Discovery, season 1). Cabrera starred as Padre Reyes in Undone, and in 2023, worked on the TV series Neon. Recently, Cabrera participated in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes alongside Star Trek: Picard co-star Jeri Ryan and numerous other Star Trek actors and creatives.
In November 2023 Cabrera became the victim of a Facebook-based ‘celebrity death hoax’ when a fake story suggesting the actor had passed away spread online.
Starting Star Trek: Picard season 2 as Captain of Starfleet’s USS Stargazer in 2401, Rios is reunited with his season 1 crewmates. When an unidentified ship demands negotiations with Admiral Picard directly, events involving the omnipotent Q (John De Lancie) result in traveling to the past to prevent a dark, authoritarian alternate reality. Rios is injured in an unfortunate transporter mishap, but he is instrumental in the restoration of the timeline and finds surprising comfort in 21st-century Los Angeles. Though their mission is successful, Captain Rios ultimately opts to remain in the past with Dr. Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodriguez) and her son Ricardo (Steve Guitterez), having fallen in love with them and the 21st century itself.
Can Santiago Cabrera’s Captain Rios Return To Star Trek?
While it is impossible to say definitively, it is unlikely that Captain Rios will make a Star Trek comeback. The character’s decision to remain in the twenty-first century past and live out his days with Dr. Ramirez and her son until his demise in a Moroccan bar fight several decades later, as revealed to Jean-Luc Picard by long-time friend Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), somewhat narrows the available options for his return. It is also important to note that, as confirmed by Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series premiere, World War III was due to begin just two years after the time in which Rios opted to stay.
Based on Guinan’s account, it’s reasonable to assume that Rios survived the war, but it does raise questions and potential inconsistencies regarding his experiences. Feeling as though he didn’t fit well in his own time, in or outside of Starfleet, it’s a fitting finale for Cristobal Rios to have both encountered and embraced a sense of contentment, meaning, and belonging. Although, technologically, almost nothing is impossible in Star Trek, it remains unlikely that Santiago Cabrera’s Captain Cristóbal Rios will find a place to return in a future Star Trek: Picard spinoff, having found a connection, a home, and a family in its past.
