This post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Prodigy.

With the exception of Miles O’Brien, Wesley Crusher may have suffered more than any other Star Trek character. Not so much on screen, though few of us would be able to recover from a sharp “Shut up” from Captain Picard. Rather, Crusher has suffered off-screen, at the hands of viewers who hated having a precocious kid on the Enterprise during The Next Generation era and started groups devoted to imagining the character’s death.

Although Wesley has cameoed in the years after he left Tng with the Traveler, including in Picard and Lower Decks, it was still something of a surprise when Wesley returned in the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy in a more involved role. It was an even bigger surprise that fans welcomed him back with such elation, something that came as a real joy to Wesley performer, Wil Wheaton.