Discovery season 2 trailer, stills, release date, mini-episodes and casting updates!

The first trailer for season two of Discovery has been released, and it look amazing! Check it out for loads of mystery seeking Captain Pike and Discovery crew goodness:



Continue below for an excessive screencap breakdown. But first, there's loads of other news:

At the San Diego Comic Con the season series has also been confirmed for 2019 release. But we will still be getting some new Trek this year, in a series of character focused mini-episodes called Short Treks. There are four episodes in the works, each 10-15 minutes long, and they will be released monthly this autumn. StarTrek.com gave this summary:

Rainn Wilson will return to play Harry Mudd in a short he will also direct, and Aldis Hodge will star in another as Craft, a man who finds himself the only human on board a deserted ship. Additional episodes will include a deep dive into Saru’s (Doug Jones) backstory as the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, and Tilly’s (Mary Wiseman) journey aboard the U.S.S. Discovery and her friendship with an unlikely partner.

And showrunner Alex Kurtzman talked a bit about the idea:

There is no shortage of compelling stories to tell in the Star Trek universe that inspire, entertain, and either challenge our preconceived ideas or affirm long held beliefs, and we are excited to broaden the universe already with Short Treks. Each episode will deliver closed-ended stories while revealing clues about what’s to come on in future Star Trek: Discovery episodes. They’ll also introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger world of Star Trek.

Surely this new Craft character will be one of those hints of things to come? And likewise surely Riann Wilson's visit to set will be for more than making his short?

We also have new casting news: Rebecca Romijn will be joining the crew, as Number One! She celebrated the reveal with a nice tweet:

Just call me “Number One!” Honored to play such an iconic character in #StarTrek Canon originally played by the First Lady of Star Trek, Majel Barrett-Roddeberry! 

Here too are some more stills from the new season, including a few more new members of the cast: Along with the familiar Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Saru (Doug Jones) in the lift here we have the already well established Captain Pike (Anson Mount), and the recently revealed new Saurian Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson). Joining them are Lieutenants Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) in red, and Connolly (Sean Connolly Affleck) in blue. Also separately below we have our first look at Tig Notaro as Chief Engineer Reno.

There are a few tidbits of story news from the Comic Con panel held today: As if we were in any doubt, Spock will be featured (although as the trailer shows, maybe not early on?), and Doctor Culber will definitely be back in some form.

While the series seems to be off on a bit of a mystery solving adventure with Captain Pike for a while, the Klingons are not forgotten. Mary Chieffo summarised where L'Rell is at (via the Discovery Twitter):

She's trying to be the best chancellor she can be of this patriarchal Klingon empire. She's doing her best to uphold T'Kuvma's mission.

And Ash Tyler is still struggling to figure himself out, as Shazad Latif described:

He wants to see Burnham again, but he's got to find a way back. He's going to struggle to find his place in the universe.

Now, here's the screencap breakdown of the trailer. I'm going to start with the scene I find most eye catching, and that we get only the briefest glimpse of. What the heck is going on here with all these people and the glowy something?

Well I think that's Stamets and Tilly, so maybe it's a work of maths?

Also seen only fleatinyly is an explosion pushing Burnham out of a Shenzhou-style transporter room.

Maybe this is on Reno's ship? Previously reported to be the USS Hiawatha.

This tunnel thing, "emergency containment" of something, doesn't appear to survive the crew's visit.

And then there's this mysterious possibly multi-limbed something Burnham encounters, with the very intriguing line of dialogue "We have always looked to the stars, to discover who we are. And hidden there is a message, the secret made of space and time, visible only to those open enough to receive it"

This encounter seems to be somewhere where a landing party visits in EV suits:

Is this all related to the mystery the trailer sets up?

Which is itself apparently linked to Spock, as Burnham discovers via his personal logs:

This mission seems to take the Discovery to a rather energetic asteroid field, and well, it looks like that might not go so well for the ship, with a Very close encounter with some rocks!

And that apparently leads some of the crew to take to these very fast pod-things that appear to launch out of the back of the Discovery. There's a lot of pod action in the trailer...

There's also lots of Captain Pike!

What's going on in the ceiling of this corridor?

While the trailer highlights the Enterprise uniforms nicely, it does appear that Captain Pike also dons the standard fleet uniform at some point:

Here's some assorted Disco crew:

And it seems a rather sweet and unwell Linus the Saurian:

And last but by no means least, sexy space shots!

For an overview of the series so far, including behind the scenes coverage, and details of tie-in products, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page. Or for details of each episode, including links to previews and reviews, see my episode list.