Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Actress Rebecca Romijn: “More Fulfilling Female Characters” Found In Nerdy Genres

John F. Trent |

Apr 21, 2022

Source: Strange New Worlds via Star Trek Twitter

Rebecca Romijn, known for he role as Mystique in the X-Men franchise and who is currently playing Una Chin-Riley in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, recently claimed there are “more fulfilling female characters” in nerdy genres.

Romijn’s comments came in an interview promoting Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with TrekMovie.com

TrekMovie.com’s Anthony Pascale asked her, “You have been lucky enough to be involved in a lot of projects from X-Men, Chuck, and the DC cartoons. And now you’re in Star Trek. Do you seek out these more nerdy roles or is this just something that’s brought to you?”

Romijn responded, “I would say I definitely have an inner nerd that I embrace. I don’t necessarily seek them out. Except I will say that the more fulfilling female characters are usually within that genre…”

She added, “Especially as the mother of daughters, those are the roles that are more interesting to me to play.”

Romijn’s comments appear to fly in the face of comments made by rumored Spider-Woman director Olivia Wilde that she made during an appearance on the Shut Up Evan podcast.

Wilde noted she wanted to reframe superhero stories from a female perspective saying, “We are not only going to step in and try and tell this story like men do, we’re actually going to reframe the stories themselves.”

She also noted that she wanted to infuse the genre with a female perspective explaining she was excited that “this incredible influx of female directors and storytellers getting to take hold of this genre, of the superhero space, and infuse it with their own perspective.”

Romijn’s comments also stand in stark contrast to Colleen Clinkenbeard’s recent comments where she claimed female characters in anime “tend to end up in the background, waiting to be rescued or fixed in some way.”

Clinkenbeard even advocated the female characters act more like males saying, “[Female characters] tend to end up in the background, waiting to be rescued or fixed in some way. I’d like to see more strength in the female characters we see in anime so both girls and boys watching anime as they grow up can find things to admire in those characters, rather than looking to the male leads for inspiration.”

Clinkenbeard did provide a caveat noting, “Obviously, there are exceptions to that rule!”

Earlier in the interview, Romijn would also touch on how she was introduced to Star Trek at a young age by her mother and why she hopes that Star Trek: New Worlds will be able to do the same by appealing to moms who introduce Star Trek to their children.

Romijn detailed, “I just went to [Star Trek: Mission Chicago] last weekend. And it’s nice. I was introduced to Star Trek by my mom at the age of eight, to The Original Series. And I think a lot of us were. I know Anson [Mount] was also introduced to Star Trek: The Original Series at the age of eight by his mom.”

“And I think that that’s not by accident. I think moms want to introduce their kids to Star Trek because when you look into your child’s eyes – and I can say this as the only mom on our cast, I have kids – you see curiosity. You see a need for exploration,” she continued.

The actress elaborated, “You want your kids to think universally and think totally outside the box. And that’s what The Original Series did. It sparked a lot of conversation between my mom and me about whether or not we’re the only ones in this universe, about acceptance, about people from all different backgrounds coming together and working in harmony, and about exploration and curiosity. These are all things that mothers foster in their children.”

She then went on to detail how that message resonated at the convention, “When I said that at the convention in Chicago, all day long, everybody I passed said, “My mom introduced me to Star Trek.” … I just kept hearing that over and over and over again, and I just love that.”

Finally, she concluded by hoping that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be able to accomplish the same thing, “I hope we do that for a new generation of Star Trek fans.”