Two to beam up! Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp join Michelle Yeoh as the first official cast members of Star Trek: Discovery.
As production on Star Trek: Discovery inches ever closer, so too do the casting announcements. Last week we learned that Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) would be appearing on the show.
CBS have now confirmed that Yeoh’s role will be that of Captain Georgiou, and she will be helming the starship Shenzhou.
But Yeoh is no longer the sole cast member, as we have two new additions boarding Star Trek: Discovery alongside her.
BREAKING: #StarTrekDiscovery beams up first three cast members: @ActorDougJones, #MichelleYeoh, and @albinokid. pic.twitter.com/2tw5uXqWxA
— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) November 29, 2016
CBS announced that veteran genre actor Doug Jones will be playing Lt. Saru, a Starfleet science officer. For those of you familiar with his previous roles, it will come as little surprise that Jones will be playing an alien species. That species will be one we have yet to meet in the Star Trek universe.
The ship that Jones’ Lt. Saru will be serving on was not announced by CBS at this time.
Anthony Rapp, best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Rent, will likewise be playing a Starfleet science officer and is the first confirmed crew member of the Discovery. As well as a science officer, Rapp’s Lt. Stamets will also be an astromycologist and fungus expert. His character will reportedly be gay in the series — Bryan Fuller had announced in August that there would be at least one.
It was recently announced that Bryan Fuller would be stepping down as showrunner on Discovery, handing the day-to-day running of the series to fellow Executive Producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. Berg and Harberts will also be joined by writer and director Akiva Goldsman. Fuller will continue to have creative input on Discovery despite his departure.
Originally slated for a January 2017 release, Star Trek: Discovery will instead be hitting CBS All Access in May — a delay that will ensure that the show won’t compromise on quality for an expedited premiere. The 13-episode series will take place 10 years prior to Kirk and the Enterprise crew’s five year mission in the Prime/original Star Trek universe.
Still to be cast is the show’s human, female lead character, who will not be sitting in the Captain’s chair but will be referred to as Number One throughout the majority of the first season.