3 ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ cast members announced

Doug Jones, Michelle Yeoh and Anthony Rapp are the first three cast-members announced for “Star Trek: Discovery,” the upcoming new series in the “Star Trek” canon.

Jones (“Falling Skies,” the “Hellboy” films), 56, will play Lt. Saru, a Starfleet science officer of an alien species new to “Star Trek.” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Yeoh, 54, has been cast as Capt. Georgiou of the Starship Shenzhou, with Broadway star Rapp (“Rent,” “If/Then”) as Starfleet Science Officer Lt. Stamets, an astromycologist, or space-fungus expert, aboard the Starship Discovery.

TVLine.com on Tuesday, citing an anonymous source, said Stamets would be the gay character that showrunner Bryan Fuller said the series would include. “We’re absolutely having a gay character,” Fuller told the Television Critics Association during a panel at the summer press tour in August.

“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager” writer Fuller co-created the new science-fiction drama with Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the films “Star Trek” (2009) and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013). When announced just over a year ago, CBS Television Studios said the new series “will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.”

The show, which Fuller said will be set in the TV-series universe of “Star Trek” rather than the current movie universe, is scheduled to premiere in May on CBS All Access, the network’s streaming and video-on-demand service.