The loss of Bryan Fuller from the CBS All Access series Star Trek Discovery is a blow from which many of us are still reeling. But the developmental voyage continues ahead, and today marks the announcement of three new cast members joining the series as Klingons.
CBS revealed Chris Obi, who plays Anubis on Fuller’s American Gods series for Starz, is one of them, along with Shazad Latif and Mary Chieffo. The news was made in an announcement video, while EW has more information on their respective characters: T’Kuvma (Obi), a leader seeking to unite the Klingon houses; Kol (Latif), a Klingon Commanding Officer and protege of T’Kuvma; and L’Rell (Chieffo), the Battle Deck Commander of a Klingon ship.
As Deadline pointed out, there was a character named Kol in the Deep Space comics, and he was the captain of the IKS ‘Avwi.
The cast already includes Hellboy actor Doug Jones as Starfleet Science Officer and member of a new alien species Lt. Saru, Michelle Yeoh as Starfleet Captain Georgia of the Starship Shenzhou, and Anthony Rapp as “astromycologist” and “fungus expert” Lt. Stamens. Discovery takes place aboard the Starship Discovery, 10 years before Captain Kirk’s five-year mission through deep space. Still to be cast is the lead female officer of the Discovery.
Fuller previously described the series as a “novel over 13 episodes,” and teased a focus on “an incident and an event in Star Trek history that’s been talked about but never been explored.” He further discussed more diversity (including an openly gay character and female lead), as well as robots, the potential for Spock’s human mom Amanda Grayson to appear, and a play on the visual style.
It was all very exciting, and then news broke that Fuller wasn’t going to be acting showrunner anymore. Making matters worse are his most recent comments, stating he’s not involved at all but merely handed an outline he helped craft over to the producers — as if paying a monthly fee for CBS All Access wasn’t aggravating enough. But there’s always hope this’ll become something great.
Star Trek Discovery will premiere in May of next year.
