Brent Spiner and Ron Perlman have used Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner’s Dropping Names... And Other Things podcast to revisit Tom Hardy’s time on the set of Star Trek: Nemesis, saying the actor was not treated very well by director Stuart Baird. Their comments put a fresh spotlight on Hardy’s early film work just as he is back in the news over his future on MobLand.
The discussion matters now because Hardy’s name has been surfacing again in reporting about alleged trouble behind the scenes on the series, with negotiations said to be underway over a possible return for a third season. In May, reports said he had been fired after alleged clashes with executive producers Jez Butterworth and David Glasser, along with rumored feuds involving Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, while later reports said the production was still trying to resolve the situation. A separate report also said Colin Farrell and Idris Elba had been considered as possible replacements.
Spiner said plainly that Hardy “was not treated very well by the director, Stuart Baird,” while Perlman went further, saying Baird was “a f***ing editor that the studio owed a favor to” and that the studio gave him the chance to direct Star Trek: Nemesis after owing him a favor. Perlman also described Hardy as “so sweet, and so… talk about deferential,” adding that the two “bonded big time.”
That account does not match the picture Patrick Stewart drew in his memoir Making It So, where he described Hardy as an “odd, solitary young man.” The contrast is striking because it shows how differently Hardy could be read on the same set: isolated to one observer, but warm and easy to work with to two others who spent time with him during the 2002 film.
Hardy played Praetor Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis, the Romulan-created clone of Picard who led the Remans and planned to invade the Federation and destroy life on Earth. What remains unanswered is how much of the friction on that set flowed from Baird’s leadership and how much came from the pressures around the production itself, but the cast members’ remarks make clear they saw Hardy as the one being shortchanged.
The comments, published on Jun 05, 2026 and updated Jun 08, 2026, leave Hardy in the middle of two very different storylines: a long-ago set dispute now being reinterpreted, and a current fight over whether he comes back to MobLand at all.
