New Star Trek Series Will Have a Female Lead

The new CBS Star Trek series will likely have a female lead, perhaps even a woman of color, co-showrunner Bryan Fuller revealed to Deadline. Fuller, who will lead Star Trek: Discovery with co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman, revealed that almost all of the women who have been seen for the lead role so far are either African-American or Hispanic. Not much is known about the new television series, but per the Television Critics Association (TCA) panel for CBS All Access (which will be the permanent home of the show) the series is likely to be set 10 years before the time period of Captain James T. Kirk, and will bridge the gap between Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005) and the original series. However, the show is set to be a 13-episode closed "novel" series, which means a second season might include an entirely new set of characters. In addition to the lead role (which will not be a captain but instead a lieutenant commander) likely being a woman of color, there will also be a gay character in the main cast of the show. The Hollywood Reporter also learned that the rest of the cast will also feature a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser, and a British male doctor. "Star Trek started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast: a Russian, a black woman, an Asian, a Vulcan … we're continuing that tradition and our lead of the show is going to be subject of that same level of who is the best actor and what can we say about diversity in every role we'll have on the show," Fuller said at the panel. "We wanted to paint a picture of Star Fleet that's indicative of encountering people who are much more different than we are." Fuller also indicated there would likely be many aliens on this series in addition to the announced diversity among human cast. The new series will be the latest effort in the television and movie franchise's 50-year run. In addition to this new series, the blockbuster film Star Trek Beyond, which has already grossed $145 million at the box office, is also currently in the theaters. Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on CBS in January 2017 before moving to SVOD (Streaming or Subscription Video on Demand) platform CBS All Access later in the year.