Both Trekkies and Trekkers alike have reason to rejoice on Tuesday with the announcement of the first three cast members of CBS All Access’ upcoming series Star Trek: Discovery.
Although the casting was rumoured last week, Tuesday’s announcement confirmed that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Michelle Yeoh would be serving as a Starfleet captain.
Yeoh’s character, Captain Georgiou, operates aboard the Starship Shenzhou.
Also joining the cast is Doug Jones, an actor whose prior experience as a contortionist fuels much of his acting style. Jones is best known for performing under heavy prosthetic make-up in several Guillermo del Toro films, including Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, as well as stints on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Strain.
For Discovery, Jones will play Lt. Saru, a Starfleet science officer and a new, although unspecified, alien species to the Star Trek universe.
Anthony Rapp, best known for originating and later reprising the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway musical Rent, will also star in Discovery.
Rapp will play Lt. Stamets, a science officer who specialises in astromycology, which is a fancy way to say that he’s very into space mushrooms. Lt. Stamets will serve aboard the eponymous Starship Discovery.
There is still plenty of casting news yet to come, including the reveal of who will be starring as the series’ female lead.
Star Trek: Discovery is scheduled to debut in May with Alex Kurtzman, Bryan Fuller, Heather Kadin, Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth on board as executive producers.
Berg and Harberts will also serve as showrunners on the series, taking over for Fuller, who stepped down from the position in October.
