Short Treks details and Discovery season 2 bits and bobs

Following the Discovery season 2 newsgasm that was the San Diego Comic Con, more details of the second season and the new Short Treks series of shorts are trickling out.

We have some notable new details on one of those Short Treks, as author Michael Chabon (probably best known for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) has been revealed as the writer of an episode called Calypso. Posting on Instagram he talked a little about his experience on the show:

A few weeks ago, I flew to Toronto to be on the set of #STARTREKDISCOVERY for the 3-day shoot of a short film I wrote (one of four making up a new spinoff micro-series called SHORT TREKS). Mine’s entitled “Calypso,” it stars the blazingly talented @aldis_hodge, was directed by the brilliant #OlatundeOsunsanmi, and while all of that is very exciting, the most exciting part of all, personally, was the moment you see here, in this photo. I did not SAY “Ahead, warp factor 4, Mr. Sulu,” or “Make it so!”, because after all I was aboard the Discovery, not the Enterprise. But I THOUGHT both of those things. I thought them very hard.

The other big news is on casting - Which includes confirmation that Spock has already been cast (but we don't know who yet. Speaking to Variety, showrunner Alex Kurtzman talked a bit about that role:

...we are casting a new Spock. It’s not just a possibility, it’s been done.

Everybody assumes that just because Spock is all about logic that there is no emotion in there; that's entirely untrue. So finding an actor who can convey what we know to be very Vulcan, but also reveal so much emotion in the eyes, and in the small gestures, so you understand there's just a tornado of things happening under the surface is critical. So you need an actor who can do both of those things at the same time; which is very challenging.

Thanks to TrekMovie's interview with the new Captain Pike, Anson Mount, we also now know that character will be part of the main cast throughout the whole second season. Similarly when talking to  Wilson Cruz, aka Doctor Culber, they confirmed he too is a series regular this season. But how? He's dead? Well, it's been well telegraphed Culber is coming back some how, and he hinted a bit at that:

First of all, he had to die in order for what happens at the end of the season. In order for the universe, and all the universes, to be saved, somebody had to be in the mycelia network to know what was going on and be able to have a strong enough bond with somebody in our plane that could reach them. And that bond was love. So we saved the universe because that had to happen. And that had to happen so we can do what we are about to do.

All these interviews came after the panel at the San Diego Comic Con, and that is now online in full if you'd like to watch it (in the US at least):



Finally, here's a cute cast photo from Entertainment Weekly. I mainly wanted to post this because I found it funny that Anson Mount appears to be wearing his uniform, but upside-down!

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.