'Star Trek Discovery' Showrunner Has Found a New Spock
"Star Trek" fans? Get ready for a new Spock.
During a recent interview at Comic-Con 2018 with TrekMovie, showrunner and executive producer Alex Kurtzman confirmed what fans have known: everyone's favorite Vulcan will be back for Season 2. But what fans didn't know is how far along in the casting process the show is.
"We are casting a new Spock," Kurtzman revealed. "It’s not just a possibility, it’s been done."
The top-secret casting was not easy, according to Kurtzman.
"Everybody assumes that because Spock is all about logic, that there is no emotion in there and that is entirely untrue. So, finding an actor to 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 is just a tornado of things just 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."
Kurtzman co-wrote "Star Trek" 2009, which brought Zachary Quinto's take on the iconic sci-fi character. Quinto appeared opposite Spock Prime, Leonard Nimoy, in both "Star Trek" and in 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness."
When Season 2 of "Discovery" kicks off, we'll meet a Spock roughly a decade before the start of "The Original Series'" first season -- but while serving aboard the Enterprise captained by Christopher Pike, who commanded the starship before Kirk in "Trek's" first pilot, "The Cage." Season 2 presumably takes place after the events of "The Cage."
We'll find out who scored the highly-coveted role when "Discovery" launches its second season on CBS All Access in early 2019. The season will be preceded by mini-episodes, "Short Treks," toward the end of 2018.