One Of Patrick Stewart's Final TV Roles Was A Twisted Turn In Prime Video's James Bond Satire

Sir Patrick Stewart, beloved for his performances as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies, knew how to delight audiences up to the end of his life. However, in one of his final TV performances, he also knew how to disturb us while making us laugh.

This performance was in "Bait," a six-episode Prime Video miniseries about a British Pakistani actor, Shah Latif (Riz Ahmed), in the running for the role of James Bond. At the start of the 2nd episode, titled "To Troll, To Provoke," it seems as if Stewart is playing himself interviewing Shah for a podcast. However, as Stewart's questions get more aggressive over the course of the episode, it's revealed that Shah is hallucinating the interview ... and he's actually talking to a severed pig's head in a freezer.

This pig's head was previously thrown through the Latif family's window as an Islamophobic hate crime, and it continues to be a disturbing presence throughout the series. "Pigtrick Stewart," as the head is called, becomes symbolic of Shah's self-loathing and negative inner monologue. The psychologically twisted, darkly comedic Patrick Stewart role in "Bait" is a standout among many creative and compelling turns in a series that definitely deserves your attention, especially as we await news on the actual casting for the next James Bond.

Series creator Riz Ahmed had no expectation that Patrick Stewart would agree to voice "Pigtrick," even as the show's writing team designed the role specifically for him. Ahmed wrote Stewart a letter expecting rejection, but thankfully got a yes.

"I'm not sure how and why he said yes to this, but we were certain that the role he plays could only be him," Ahmed told GQ for the show's Sundance world premiere. "He was our first choice. We'd written it around him. I mean, his words were that he'd never read anything quite like this."

One thing Stewart especially enjoyed for his "Bait" part? Learning how to swear in Urdu. At Deadline's TV Contenders event for the 2025-2026 Emmys season, Ahmed quoted Stewart as having said, "Behenchod – ah, sister f***er, is it? Fantastic, it does have a logic to it. Wonderful culture. You'd like me to sing the words or say them?"