Despite a few setbacks, Star Trek: Discovery is shaping up to be something great. As we previously reported, the show’s premiere had been pushed to May 2017 and more recently, Bryan Fuller stepped down as showrunner. On the plus side, he’s staying on as executive producer while writers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts are set to take over the day-to-day duties of running the show.
Now, the CBS All Access series which promises “new crews, new villains, new heroes, and new worlds” has added some new faces to the cast. Anthony Rapp, best known for playing Mark Cohen in the Broadway and big screen versions of the hit musical Rent, has signed on to play a Starfleet Science Officer named Lt. Stamets. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s an astromycologist, also known as a fungus expert. Doug Jones, who you might recognize as Billy in Hocus Pocus, has also joined the cast as a Science Officer. He’s stepping into the role of Lt. Saru, a member of an alien species not yet seen in the Star Trek universe.
The news comes after it was announced that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Michelle Yeoh will play Captain Georgiou of the Starship Shenzhou. Plot details are scarce, but we do know that, per Entertainment Weekly, the series will focus on a female lieutenant character in a time that predates Kirk and the rest of the gang. Keeping with the show’s celebration of diversity, Fuller previously stated that “Absolutely we’re having a gay character.”
Star Trek: Discovery heads to television next May.
(via The Hollywood Reporter, image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
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