Having initially been brought on board to develop and serve as showrunner on CBS’ new series Star Trek: Discovery, Bryan Fuller exited the project this past October.
During an interview with EW, Fuller shared a few words on his departure from the series, stating that: “I got to dream big. I was sad for a week and then I salute the ship and compartmentalize my experience.”
Fuller also revealed that his original idea was to create several serialized anthology shows beginning with Discovery, and taking us through the eras of The Original Series and The Next Generation, before moving ahead to a time yet to be seen in the Trek franchise.
“The original pitch was to do for science-fiction what American Horror Story had done for horror,” Fuller says. “It would platform a universe of Star Trek shows.”
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The official reason for Fuller’s departure was his commitments to his other projects, specifically Starz’s American Gods. However, EW also reveals that Fuller and CBS disagreed on a number of areas, such as the network’s choice of David Semel (Code Black) to direct the pilot, with Fuller said to have approached a number of directors himself, including Edgar Wright.
While Fuller is no longer involved creatively, CBS did push ahead with his choice for the show’s lead, casting The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham – something that Fuller appreciated when he got to see the show’s trailer: “What I can say is…my reaction was that I was happy to see a black woman and an Asian woman in command of a Starship.”
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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY will follow the voyages of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new lifeforms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The series will feature a new ship, new characters and new missions, while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.
Star Trek: Discovery premieres on September 24th on CBS and on September 25th on Netflix. Featuring in the cast are Sonequa Martin-Green (Lieutenant Commander Michael Burnham) are Jason Isaacs (Captain Lorca), Michelle Yeoh (Captain Georgiou), Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Doug Jones (Saru), James Frain (Sarek), Terry Serpico (Anderson), Maulik Pancholy (Nambue), Anthony Rapp (Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Tilly), Mary Chieffo (L-Rell), Shazad Latif (Lieutenant Tyler), Rekha Sharma (Commander Mitchell), Kenneth Mitchell (Kol), Clare McConnell (Dennas), Damon Runyan (Ujilli) and Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd).
Originally published August 1, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
