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The CBS All Access reboot will be putting a new spin on Captain Kirk with the central character played by a woman.
CBS All Access' upcoming Star Trek: Discovery will be putting a new spin on its Captain Kirk character.
The Bryan Fuller-led series will be captained by a woman, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, with the role potentially also being diverse. A formal announcement on that and additional details about the series are expected to be revealed Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. It's unclear if the central character will actually be a captain, though that would certainly make the most sense. (We'll update this story with more details from Fuller as they become available.)
While details about the cast are still yet to be determined, the news that its human captain would be a woman comes as little surprise. Showrunner Fuller — who is openly gay — recently moderated a 50th anniversary Star Trek panel at Comic-Con where he used the platform to stress that the franchise could serve as an antidote to the current political upheaval.
"Think about what’s happening in America, and think about the promise of Star Trek, and what we can all do to get there," he told the crowd before ending the panel by asking all the fans in attendance to take each other’s hands and “make a promise to leave this room with love, to leave this room with hope, to leave this room and take responsibility to craft a path to Gene Roddenberry’s vision."
The CBS All Access show features with the franchise's Enterprise now known as the U.S.S. Discovery. The drama, set to bow in 2017, will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.
Sources tell THR the rest of the cast will also feature an openly gay actor play one one of the male leads, a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser and a British male doctor.
For CBS, the news comes as the network is facing criticism for its fall lineup that is heavy on white male stars including Kevin James, Michael Weatherly, Matt LeBlanc and Joel McHale, among others. Last pilot season, the network rebooted Nancy Drew with a diverse female lead in Sarah Shahi. The pilot did not move forward.
For his part, CBS president Glenn Geller was put on the hot seat earlier Wednesday about the network's lack of diversity. "We need to do better," Geller said — seven times — during his time in front of critics at TCA.
Star Trek: Discovery arrives as the franchise's latest big-screen take features a new spin on the original character of Sulu. Star John Cho's Sulu now openly gay, though that is much to the chagrin of the character's original star, the openly gay George Takei.
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