'Star Trek: Discovery' news: More characters added to cast; CBS CEO explains why 'Discovery' perfectly fits CBS All Access
"Star Trek: Discovery" has added more new faces to its stellar cast lineup.
Deadline reports that Kenneth Mitchell is joining the show as Kol, a commanding officer in the Klingon empire. The role of Kol was first given to "Penny Dreadful" alum Shazad Latif, but the actor is now switching to the role of Lieutenant Tyler, a Starfleet officer in the Federation.
Other newcomers on "Star Trek: Discovery" are Clare McConnell as Dennas and Damon Runyan as Ujilli, who are both leaders in the Klingon Empire. Rekha Sharma has also been tapped to be in the series as Commander Landry, a security officer of the Starship Discovery.
After numerous delays, the relaunch of the famed "Star Trek" TV franchise is currently set to premiere in late summer or early fall of 2017. The sci-fi series had been initially scheduled to air in January, but numerous problems pushed the show back. Those issues included production delays and the dismissal of former showrunner Bryan Fuller, who is still an executive producer of the program.
In other related news, CBS CEO Les Moonves recently participated in a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Many big industry names were attended the event to talk about the future of the entertainment industry. Moonves was particularly asked about how CBS developed content for the CBS All Access platform, which led him to discuss why original CBS All Access shows are considered "premium" content.
"'Star Trek' we could have sold anywhere. There was a bidding war within CBS because it is obviously a very valuable property," he shared, adding that the network also learned a lot from Netflix. "We put the other Star Trek series [on Netflix] and they did very well. They don't share the information, but . . . we knew Star Trek did extremely well. . . . We said 'if we give them a good product, that they will come and they will pay for it. It will be special.' And that is how we look at CBS All Access."
"Star Trek: Discovery" premieres sometime later this year on CBS All Access.
