The first captain of the U.S.S. Discovery was Gabriel Lorca, but the twists and turns across Star Trek: Discovery season 1 meant that Jason Isaacs was written out the show by the finale. Still, the Harry Potter actor was one of the most popular parts of the divisive debut run of the CBS All Access series and fans would love to see him return. This time as Prime Lorca, though, rather than the evil Mirror Universe version. And if it was possible, the most obvious place for his comeback would be Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
But is this something that’s on the cards? Intriguingly, when Isaacs was asked about it during a virtual panel at Dragon Con this weekend, he elected to plead the fifth. The star even went on to suggest that he might be giving away a spoiler if he talked about it.
“Taking the fifth. The whole point of having a story told to you is that you don’t know what’s in the story. It’s like asking when someone is going to tell you a joke: “Give me the punchline and I’ll make my mind up.”
Isaacs, a big Trek fan himself, has previously said that he would love to return as Prime Lorca. And Strange New Worlds taking place in the aftermath of Discovery season 2, whereas that show is now set 1000 years in the future, would make it easy for him to turn up and for us to finally get some answers as to what happened to this universe’s Lorca.
Whatever happens, Isaacs promises that the writers wouldn’t just bring him back for a “token” cameo or guest spot. The actor also went on to heap praise on the writing team, defending them against the kind of criticism they’ve faced from some fans over the years.
“When Discovery first came out, there was a lot of reticence with fans. Understandably people were protective of this legacy of extraordinary stories. There was some doubts that the people writing it really knew all about Star Trek, and that doubt must be gone now. Because all this stuff, like ‘How are they going to focus? How is discovery? How does the spore drive ever gonna figure?’ They dealt with it. They’ve now gone to the future. That’s why there is no record of them. All of the questions are answered. There are people in the room, however geeky you think you are and whatever minutae you think you can sit up all night discussing, they can do it to the power of 100 in the room.
And if they do bring back Lorca, or anyone else, it’ll never be token. They take it more seriously than you could possibly imagine. Making sure that honors the legacy and gives them license to invent new and great stories. So I presume those voices have been quieted now, although we don’t want to stop the fans talking. But the notion that there aren’t real Star Trek fans and people who really understand every word that’s ever been spoken in uniform in the room is clearly nonsense by now.”
Maybe we can infer something from Isaacs’ remarks or maybe we can’t, but it definitely sounds like more from Lorca isn’t being ruled out.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is on course to shoot in early 2021, meaning it could be with us late next year.
