Star Trek: Discovery will dig deeper into the wider Trek universe in its second season, that much we know. Inhumans‘ Anson Mount is hopping aboard as the new captain, Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn is his first mate Number One and, most importantly of all, Ethan Peck’s joining the cast as Spock, the third actor to play the role of the iconic Vulcan.
That might not be it when it comes to familiar characters in the new run, though. According to some comments made by showrunner Alex Kurtzman to TV Insider, seeing as Discovery‘s set a decade before The Original Series, any characters rolling around the Trek-verse at this point in the timeline could feasibly show up.
“We are 10 years before [The Original Series]. But we are consistent with Pike and that journey. Obviously, characters that existed would probably still exist in our timeline. So, any number of people on that ship could show up this year.”
Discovery is clearly undergoing something of a rebranding this season, after the show’s first run divided fans. As headed up by Bryan Fuller, the rookie season possessed a somewhat darker tone and rubbed folks the wrong way with its stretching of established canon. With Fuller stepping away due to creative differences with CBS, Kurtzman’s taken over as sole showrunner and seems to be keen to embrace the history of the franchise a lot more.
In another chat with Syfy Wire, Kurtzman likewise teased how Discovery season 2 would further work itself into the timeline. It seems the main method of generating stories is exploiting blank passages in Trek history which could hold fresh tales. For instance, last season’s Klingon-Federation war.
“There are a lot of things that have been mentioned over time [in Star Trek], that are alluded to, but they are grey areas. There is a lot of detail missing. We are going to – like we did last season with the Klingon War – get to explore an area that hasn’t been explored.”
For another example, Kurtzman’s previously promised that Spock’s appearance in season 2 will explore how he goes from the relatively chirpy character in TOS pilot “The Cage” to the logical being we all know and love in the main series, asking a question about the character’s development that’s never been answered before.
You can look forward to seeing all of that and more when Star Trek: Discovery beams up to CBS All Access in January 2019.
