There are just a few months until the upcoming television series Star Trek: Discovery will make its premiere on the CBS, and its deck is beginning to fill up with new cast members. Two new actors, Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp, have joined Michelle Yeoh as the show’s first official cast members.
Who Are Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp?
So just who are the actors set to portray some new officers in Starfleet? Anthony Rapp is better known for his stage roles, having taken part in several Broadway productions. However, you may recognize him from his role in the film version of the Broadway tour of Rent back in 2009.
Doug Jones is an actor who has a unique specialty. His roles often require him to wear heavy makeup to play nonhuman characters. He played Fauno/Pale Man in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth which required extensive prosthetics. Fans of The Flash and Arrow may recognize him from his role as the plasma-beam shooting metahuman Deathbolt in season one of The Flash and season three of Arrow. He’s also been in several films based on comic books. You may recognize him is as the titular Silver Surfer in the superhero film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer or in his role as Pencilhead in the 1999 superhero comedy Mystery Men.
Who Will They Play?
Star Trek: Discovery is the first new Star Trek TV series since UPN canceled Enterprise in 2005. Set 10 years before the events of the original Star Trek series, the first season of Discovery will follow “an incident and an event in Star Trek history that’s been talked about but never been explored.”
As mentioned earlier, Jones is well known for his portrayal of characters that require heavy makeup, and his Discovery role should be no different. He will portray Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer who is, you guessed it, an alien.
Anthony Rapp will be playing Lt. Stamets who is said to be another scientist specializing in astromycology (the study of fungi in space).
Both of these are new characters, so this will give CBS plenty of freedom to try something new.
Star Trek: Discovery is set to premiere on CBS in May 2017, before moving to All Access. The first season will consist of 13 episodes. Expect plenty of new cast members to be joining in the coming weeks.