Following the “worst-kept secret in the universe,” CBS recently announced four new cast members for Star Trek: Discovery, set to air in the “late summer, early fall” of 2017. The Discovery casting announcement included a fifth new character but not a fifth new actor, Shazad Latif who was going to play Klingon commander Kol will instead play Lt. Tyler. So, Star Trek fans have nine more names to learn rather than ten.
Joining Mary Chieffo, James Frain, Jason Isaacs, Shazad Latif, Doug Jones, Sonequa Martin-Green, Chris Obi, Maulik Pancholy, Anthony Rapp, Terry Serpico, Sam Vartholomeos, Rainn Wilson, Mary Wiseman, and Michelle Yeoh are Clare McConnell, Kenneth Mitchell, Damon Runyan, and Rekha Sharma.
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – New Names
Clare McConnell appears to be relatively new to TV and film with just two credits on IMDb, Jason Long’s This Is What It Sounds Like Falling Out of Love with You and Daniel Warth’s Dim the Fluorescents, set for release in the fall of 2017.
Kenneth Mitchell’s TV career spans 16 years, first playing Spencer Matthew on Leap Years and most recently playing Deacon Joe Hurley on The CW’s Frequency.
Damon Runyan has a varied career in both TV and film, starting out on the small screen in an episode of Soul Food in 2002 and appearing most recently in Sound of Christmas.
Rekha Sharma had a lead role in Ronald D. Moore’s revamped Battlestar Galactica and even has some Star Trek experience, having appeared in a totally non-canon episode of Star Trek Continues, a fan-made show that follows the exploits of Capt. Kirk and his crew after their five-year mission had ended.
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – What We Know
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – The Federation
So far we’ve got eighteen names, unless I counted wrong. We know that three of them will play Klingons, one of them will play a member of never-before-seen alien race, and one of them will play a space-fungus expert. We know that Star Trek: Discovery is set around a decade before Capt. Kirk started his five-year mission. We also know that the show will feature at least two starships, the USS Discovery and the USS Shenzhou.
We know that the USS Discovery will be commanded by Capt. Lorca (Isaacs) and the USS Shenzhou will be commanded by Capt. Georgiou (Yeoh). We know that a cadet whose name is “Tilly” (Wiseman), chief of security Cmdr. Landry (Sharma), and the previously mentioned space-fungus expert Lt. Stamets (Rapp) will be aboard the Discovery under Capt. Lorca’s command. Capt. Georgiou, on the other hand, will command Ens. Connor (Vartholomeos) and the Shenzhou’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nambue (Pancholy).
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – The Klingon Empire
We know that T’Kuvma (Obi) seeks to unite the Klingon houses, and that Kol (Mitchell), his protégé, is a commanding officer aboard a Klingon ship. We know that L’Rell (Chieffo) will command that ship’s battle deck. These Klingons will probably do great honour or dishonour to their leaders Dennas (McConnell) and Ujilli (Runyan).
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – Familiar Faces
We also know that for better or worse we’ll see a couple of characters that have appeared in previous Star Trek iterations. Always willing to provide a logical ear, Sarek (Frain) will make an appearance as will the con man Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Wilson).
Star Trek: Discovery Casting – What We Don’t Know
Whether or not it was intentional, previous casting announcements have been vague about which ship First Officer Burnham (Martin-Green), Lt. Tyler (Latif), and Lt. Saru (Jones) will serve aboard. There’s also an Adm. Anderson (Serpico) in the mix, so we’ll have to wait to see exactly how he ends up jeopardizing the lives of the people under his command.
