Bad news for Star Trek fans: Discovery creator Bryan Fuller is reducing his role in order to focus on some other projects.
The latest news about Star Trek: Discovery came in mid-September when we found out the release date for the CBS All Access-exclusive show would be delayed until May 2017.
The reason for the delay was because Fuller’s hands have been rather full with American Gods now in production, and he wanted to take the “better late than wrong” approach to helming a new Star Trek show.
Now we’re learning from Variety that Fuller will step down as showrunner on Discovery, though he will still be involved in the series as an executive producer.
Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who are also EPs on the show, will be taking over the day-to-day duties of a showrunner.
Variety also reports that writer and director Akiva Goldsman will be joining the show in order to help the series along. It sounds like CBS is really banking on Discovery to be a flagship for their All Access subscription platform, and they don’t want to take any chances that it’s not the best it could possibly be.
CBS wrote a statement in response to the news:
Statement from CBS on @BryanFuller stepping back as #StarTrekDiscovery showrunner, emphasizing his continuing creative input on the show: pic.twitter.com/pMCxon0Uov
— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) October 26, 2016
Fuller has also now responded to the news:
Riker spent 7 years of TNG unready for Captaincy, @GretchenJBerg @AaronHarberts are ready. Thrilled to see them in command of the Bridge.
— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) October 27, 2016
It sounds like everything is amicable behind the screens and that Fuller stepping down was truly the best thing to do for the show. The fact that the series will still be following his vision as a co-creator and executive producer will certainly help fans who were excited he was on board come to terms with the news.
Aside from American Gods, Fuller is also working on a reboot of Amazing Stories for NBC.