Many of the actors on Star Trek series in the 90s (TNG, DS9, VOY) were not actually Star Trek fans, hadn’t watched the show (I think some hadn’t even heard of it before hearing about the audition opportunity), and just approached their roles as actors approach any other parts. They said in hindsight that if they were fans of the show and realized how popular it was they’d be too nervous to play their characters effectively.

Now it sounds totally unfathomable that you’d be able to find actors who didn’t know anything about Star Trek!

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 42 minutes ago

I'd actually prefer if they were fans so they can push back on bullshit their character wouldn't do. Henry Cavill is a huge Witcher fan and he absolutely killed it as geralt, and when he left the series over creative differences, I knew it wouldn't be worth watching anymore. Too many directors think they can diverge from the source material and not piss people off.

I mean obviously it's best if the actual creator is involved in the process, but dedicated fans are a good guardrail too.