Former Awake and Dig star Jason Isaacs has been cast in Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access as Captain Lorca, Captain of the Starship Discovery. It is a major role opposite lead Sonequa Martin- Green in the series, which eyes a debut in late summer or fall.
Star Trek: Discovery will feature a new ship, new characters and new missions, while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.
Isaacs joins a formidable list of actors who have played Star Trek Captains, including William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula.
In addition to Martin-Green, Isaacs joins previously cast James Frain, Terry Serpico, Maulik Pancholy, Sam Vartholomeos, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Obi, Shazad Latif and Mary Chieffo.
Star Trek: Discovery, whose premiere has been pushed twice, is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, Bryan Fuller’s Living Dead Guy Productions and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Bryan Fuller, Heather Kadin, Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts, Akiva Goldsman, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.
The series will be distributed concurrently by CBS Studios International on Netflix in 188 countries and in Canada on Bell Media’s Space Channel and CraveTV.
Isaacs’ recently co-starred in the Netflix mystery drama series The OA and will next be seen in Weinstein Co.’s Hotel Mumbai and Armando Iannucci’s Death of Stalin.
Perfect casting. They have been spot on from day one!
Really??? A white guy??? CBS breaking those diversity walls again.
Don’t worry. Since he’s a white guy he’ll be character flawed and exhibit poor judgment so his enlightened, thoughtful first officer can bail him out of every situation. Until he is killed and they promote her, probably in season 2 ,if not before. Think Captain Queeg.
Since it’s Jason Isaacs, I assume he’ll be the bad guy.
I was so happy to see they had cast to women of color in leading roles and now this… so disappointed. Not sure I’m gonna watch now and I’ve been waiting so patiently since Enterprise ended.
Woman of colour… The first inter racial screen kiss, the first woman of colour NOT a maid on TV – Uhura. Revolutionary for its time
yeah sorry, but wanda sykes isnt interested and she is as diverse as you can get (gay, black, female). anyway, there are plenty of minorities on the show. certainly more in representation than there are in the US population
Discovery has had nothing but diversity in mind with its casting. You do realize that some commanders of Star Trek starships are middle aged white males right? I’m ecstatic about the multiple people of color in the cast. I am hoping for multiple LGBT characters beyond the one announced. Diversity includes everyone. Besides, the captains in this Star Trek are not primary characters.
Diversity INCLUDES white people
THANK YOU! I was trying to find the words, and you showed me that I was trying too hard. ;) The cast is plenty diverse. Are no white males allowed at all? lol
He’s the first straight white human male character in the main cast. If he’s playing a human…or straight guy…we don’t even know that much.
This is Star Trek. Been there, done that …
This show focuses more on the first officer of the ship than the captain. The diverse supporting cast will have more screen time than Isaacs. At least, that’s the stated plan going in.
So they’re not going with the Garth of Izar story, which means the whole Axanar lawsuit was a complete waste of time.
Dude… That’s the point… The Captain is a “white guy asshole” and Sonequa Martin-Greens character is gonna replace him as he is not open enough with other races.
That was the original plan under Bryan Fuller, but now that he’s out we don’t know what’s going on now plot wise. The ship designs and the Klingons look absolutely nothing like Star Trek, or anything else resembling the existing canon. It looks like this will only resemble Star Trek in name only.
The Axanar lawsuit was not a “complete waste of time”. Paramount was defending their trademark against a group of thieves. You can’t take someone else’s IP and use it to build a for-profit studio. How sad that fans still defend these opportunists.
I understand the whole idea behind copyrights, however it strikes me as disingenuous that they were fine with fan films for over FORTY YEARS, right up until the point where one had Hollywood level VFX.
Up to the point where the Axanar producers raised over a million dollars, hired a professional crew and were using it as a launching pad to start their own studio. That crossed a line. It was competing in the marketplace with Paramount’s own Trek (with the IP it stole from Paramount.)
Frame it any way you like — it was wrong.
The Hollywood level production was kind of the point. It’s okay if you look amateurish, but when you look professional and start charging money, that crosses the line.
Because then why can’t Disney start making Star Trek movies too? And putting them in movie theaters? What if they do a better job than Paramount???? This lawsuit is intended to close off that particular very dangerous slippery slope.
The problem is now, the genie is out of the bottle. It used to be that only studios had editing equipment, HD cameras, and access to special effects packages. Now everyone can a copy of Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. I think there’s a certain amount of embarrassment involved here. They shut this down, but what happens when someone makes a movie, and then releases it around the same time a big blockbuster comes along? Hey, lawyers have to justify their existence.
Much like how the music industry sued things like Napster and Limewire, in the long run I thnk this move won’t have that big of an impact. The smart move would have been to HIRE Alec Peters, and let him finish the film with studio backing. Even if they let him finish the film and then sat on it for a few years, I think it would been better means to a end than just squashing this outright.
Thank you!
If a copyright owner ABANDONS their copyright by abandoning that original product by producing some derivative JJ idiotic retro revisionist nonsense, THEY are the fanbois ruining the franchise and SHOULD lose rights to that original copyright.
Lee Pace would have made a perfect Captain Garth! But the Axanar lawsuit didn’t have to do with this series, it was more about general copyright defense to fend off any possibility of poaching by real threats like Disney.
So excited by this news. I’m a big fan of Jason Issac. Loved the OA. Can’t wait for this new Star Trek series!
I’m hoping he plays a Starfleet Captain with the scene-chewing Southern accent he used in Black Hawk Down.
Nice idea, seriously. We don’t want people saying he’s a poor imitation of Picard.
I’m still confused. Is this going to be on CBS or just All Access? And why are people paying $6-$10 per month for non-commercial free TV with just 2 new shows. Am I missing something in this business model?
No no. You are not missing anything. It is expressly set up to use fandom clamor as stupidity & charge you as much as you can.
Episode 1 will air on CBS. The rest of the season will be an All-Access exclusive. The service doesn’t have just 2 shows. It carries most of CBS’s currently airing shows like Hawaii Five-O, Blue Bloods, Scorpion, Big Bang Theory, Mom, NCIS etc. Plus, it has older CBS content like Mission Impossible, Beverly Hills 90210, Star trek: TOS. It’s catered to people who want CBS content and want to stream it or use it to catch up. It’s not paying just $6-10 for only 2 shows.
I said two NEW shows. Sure it has current library — which you can watch on CBS or ON DEMAND for free, btw — and old library But you are paying $80-$100 per year for just 2 “All Access Originals” is my point. I guess if marathoning old Mannix or Falcon Crest is your cup of tea, this new network is for you!!
Bro, it definitely sounds like you’ve worked it all out – it’s not for you.
Wishing you the best to make it through your dark days.
You understand it correctly. It’s all about the $$$.
The business model is a rollicking success. Netflix’s share price is through the roof. Moonves is steamed he didn’t think of this first. So this is his day late/dollar short attempt to horn in on the action, hoping that Star Trek is an attractive enough brand that fans actually will sign up for this service. What else is he going to do? Broadcast is circling the drain, there’s no point investing anything there.
You have hit the nail on the head. Discovery is the “pork chop” CBS is hanging around the neck of “All Access” so that people will pay for a second rate service with old content that freezes constantly. I intend to pay not one thin dime to watch this show. I will wait for cancellation and watch it elsewhere for free. Cynical? Yep.
This show is now officially dead.
agreed
Nope. Netflix’s license outside the US and Canada is paying for production. It’s more assured of success than any other show coming out in the near future.
Congratulations to Jason Isaacs. Though I hope he’ll be able to film the second season of The OA. Also Hello to Jason Isaacs.
Wittertainment lives!! :-)
I thought they already announced Michelle Yeoh as the captain a month ago … this is a much less exciting choice. Back to skeptical optimism…
I was thinking the same thing, but now I’m suddenly no longer as interested in this show and certainly now less willing to pay extra to watch it. Also poor timing on CBS part giving the bevy of white actors playing characters that should have been played by an Asian actor and after they whitewashed Khan no less. This might be the first Trek series I ever skip.
Freedom!!!!!!
Why does it matter who plays who? You care about what race or gender plays what part? That’s why you watch Star Trek? Have you ever watched this guy play other parts to judge him like that? If the only reason you are judging this show is because they are casting a white male that is one of the most racist things I have ever heard.
Michelle Yeoh will be the captain of ANOTHER starship….the USS Shenzhou.
Nice to see a Trek fan here without spastic ADD – and picks up on BASIC details :)
he is a better/more well know actor than her. he will bring in numbers, whereas she just fit the PC diversity clause hollywood generally has
Jason Isaacs is more well known than Michelle Yeoh? You do realize that her career is easily twice as long as his and is only less well-known in English-speaking countries. Just because he was in the Harry Potter movies doesn’t mean he’s some huge star power.
Yeoh IS a captain on the show. She was hired to play a recurring character from another starship.
Yeoh is captain of a different Starship.
Wow this is honestly phenomenal casting. I love this guy as an actor and he was great in A Cure for Wellness
With it being on All Access I won’t be watching. None of the Star Trek series rate that extra charge and this will be no different.
I’ve never been as disinterested in a Star Trek project as this. trying to fleece the fans for this show may be a big reason, but I seriously doubt this will come close to the original, Next Gen or DS9.
Not a bad actor, but what happened with the woman captain thingy?
That was Michelle Yeoh, who is the captain of a different ship on this show.
Great news. “Hello to Jason Isaacs!”
Also, Mary Wiseman has been cast today too! She’s my best friend and she’s awesome and for some reason she didn’t get mentioned in this article so I thought I’d do it for her. Cool? Cool.
I can’t believe the reporter did not mention his credit as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. That’s a fairly large credit.
Why does everything got be aboutskin colour i get sick of heari g about it. It about the people not there bloody colour
EXCELLENT CHOICE! He’s got a great, commanding voice just as both Patrick Stewart and Avery Brooks did. He’s also got the acting ability to bring some serious emotional to the role.
As for those people complaining about the lack of diversity, honestly, this crap is getting old. So they hired a white guy, for all you know the rest of the cast (not including those that have already been announced) could be all minorities. Besides, they shouldn’t be under pressure to hire minorities just for the sake of diversity. Equality means that EVERYONE is given an opportunity to audition, it doesn’t mean they have a RIGHT to be on the show. If you have a black man and a white man auditioning for a role, you shouldn’t be pressured to hire the black man just because he’s black. You hire the actor who is better for the part. More than a few times have I heard about a minority actor being hired, rather than a white actor who is BETTER….and that needs to stop.
Ugh. What happened to filling the cast of a Star Trek series with an ensemble of unknowns and stage actors? Nothing against Scott Bakula, but I still find him being Scott Bakula to be incredibly distracting when I revisit Enterprise.
I’m going into this series already quite familiar with at least three of the main cast (Yeoh, Martin-Green, and Isaacs), which is unprecedented.
I’m really glad they’re airing the pilot on CBS first, because at this point, with the casting, the production delay, the prequel narrative (AGAIN), the poor aesthetic and horseshit ship design, I’m having trouble understanding who this show is geared towards, and it is really, REALLY going to have to pleasantly surprise me in that first hour to get me to pay for All Access (read: dick move).
I went from cloud nine when this was initially announced to becoming less and less interested, and more and more frustrated, with each new bit of information that’s released.
*laughs* So many people complaining about the casting choice. We don’t even know if the character is going to be human. much less any other characteristics of the character.
I blame Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
Will not watch it. Will not purchase anything licensed Trek until those fan film “guidelines” are lifted and we get back Star Trek Phase 2/New Voyages and Star Trek Continues.
Go with god.
🙄
Everyone gets to choose what hill to die on.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Jason Isaacs, but I hope he doesn’t have an American accent.
Captain Lucius Malfoy. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Oh, OK. Yeah, I can see that.
Casting seems good but Still angry that we are getting screwed in Canada. They had to go with the unpopular Bell Media service while 188 other countries get it on Netflix. I’m definitely not paying for another service for one show.
Maybe it’s sly commentary on the state of America at this uncertain time in her history. What if the Captain of a Starship turns out to be overtly reckless and is masking his dislike or mistrust of Alien cultures behind the Captain’s chair or natural charisma? Aren’t Navies mini dictatorships in effect and such a personality would eventually become threatening even to his fellow Officers his crew and possibly Galactic peace [whatever that is!]? Wouldn’t such a Commander have to be relieved of Command by his subordinates and that could be played out over several series allowing stand-alone stories for the rest of the crew and allow Jason Isaacs to go off and do Movies etc.