Wil has turned down three captaincies (the Drake mentioned in "Arsenal of Freedom" (and "Encounter at Farpoint"?), the Aries ("Ares"?) in "The Icarus Factor", and the Melbourne in "Best of Both Worlds").

He enjoys jazz music (Frakes wanted Riker's middle name to be the Tholonius (after the jazz musician Thelonious Monk) so Peter David had been using this is his novels), plays the trombone, is a master of poker, and enjoys cooking.

The character was based on Decker. He has a double (Thomas Riker) that was seen in "Second Chances." Thomas is, in every way, the same person, but differs in experience from the point of the accident forward.

Will Riker resides in deck 8, room 0912.