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The first casting news of CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery may have been just revealed by producer Nicholas Meyer.
Michelle Yeoh, seen in Netflix’s Marco Polo as “Lotus,” as well as martial arts movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and its sequel, was announced in an unknown role by Meyer. However, it is being speculated that she will play the show’s main character, a female Lieutenant Commander known as “Number One.”
Meyer didn’t offer any more details during his interview with comingsoon.net. This is the first casting news out of Discovery since it was announced early this year. The show is set to premiere in May 2017 after being delayed from its original January launch date.
Discovery was originally helmed by Star Trek veteran Bryan Fuller, but he has since stepped down from showrunner to producer due to commitments with other projects.
The first episode of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere with a broadcast TV special on CBS in May. That episode and all subsequent episodes will be exclusively shown in the U.S. on the video streaming service CBS All Access.
Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery. Follow @TrekNewsnet on Twitter, TrekNews on Facebook, TrekNews on Instagram and TrekNewsnet on YouTube.
Cabo 5150
November 23, 2016 at 6:27 am
If true… WIN!!
Andrew Cardinale
November 23, 2016 at 12:08 pm
While I think she would be great to have as a lead, I think she’s too old to play a Lt. Cmdr., who are typically shown as being in their 30s-40s. If she’s in the show, she’s probably playing one of the other characters.
Cabo 5150
November 23, 2016 at 12:51 pm
Totally get your thinking on this, but there could potentially be very specific story beats explaining her age and relatively low rank.
And besides, I think it’s extremely well established Starfleet is an open and progressive organisation which certainly wouldn’t block “late bloomers”!
I’m crossing my fingers Yeoh is indeed the lead.
Brian Thorn
November 23, 2016 at 2:07 pm
I really doubt it. Hollywood is incredibly youth-obsessed. No way the star of a new streaming show is going to be in her 50s. Yeoh’s almost certainly the captain, in a Martin Sheen / West Wing-like leadership role, while the main cast are the much younger subordinates (or at least, that’s what West Wing was meant to be.)
Cabo 5150
November 23, 2016 at 2:54 pm
Oh, I don’t know, we have Clark Gregg as the lead on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – with Ming Na Wen arguably the second lead. They’re 54 and 53 respectively.
The fact DSC is a streaming show increases the possibility of non traditional casting IMHO.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see – but however it pans out, Michelle Yeoh is major casting coup for the show, and will hopefully be a valuable asset.
Brian Thorn
November 23, 2016 at 3:34 pm
True, but I’m not sure “Agents of SHIELD” (which has tanked in the ratings and only survives because of network nepotism — Disney owns ABC) is the model CBS would want to emulate with Star Trek: Discovery. We’ll get a 20-something as the star.
Cabo 5150
November 23, 2016 at 3:53 pm
Yep, SHIELD isn’t doing terribly well, and is certainly being propped up where other shows would’ve bitten the proverbial dust long ago.
But I don’t believe its failure is a result of older leads – and although I do enjoy it to varying degrees, I think the problems are far more fundamental!.
Elementary (one of my current favourites), as a further example, continues to do reasonably well though – with Jonny Lee Millar (44) and Lucy Liu (47) as the main talent.
Brian Thorn
November 23, 2016 at 11:22 pm
Deadline is reporting Yeoh is playing Captain Han Bo of the USS Shenzhou.
Cabo 5150
November 24, 2016 at 2:51 am
OK then! Perhaps a 20-something the lead will be!
My personal prefernce would be for 30+ minimally, but, as always, I’ll go into this thing with a completely open mind.
Still pumped Yeoh’s in the show at all, and I can only hope her role is pivotal. Bearing in mind her calibre, I can’t imagine it won’t be.