‘Star Trek: Discovery’ finds its lead in ‘The Walking Dead’ actress: Report
We know that “Star Trek: Discovery” spent the better part of the past couple of months looking for its leading lady, and they may have now found someone perfect for anchoring the franchise for the immediate future.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the series — set to premiere on CBS All Access in the new year — has officially cast Sonequa Martin-Green in the leading role of a lieutenant commander on board the Discovery. Martin-Green is best known for playing Sasha on “The Walking Dead” for the past several seasons, but has some other notable credits including “The Good Wife” and also an arc on “Once Upon a Time” as Tamara.
There are several things that are notable about this casting right away. While Martin-Green is not the first woman to lead the show, she is the first minority woman in the role. This is also the first time in the “Star Trek” franchise where the main character is not actually the captain of the ship. This gives us a little bit of a different perspective, and potentially offers up a wide array of different relationships that should be interesting to explore.
Some other castings for this show at present include Anthony Rupp, playing the first gay character in the history of the franchise, and also Michelle Yeoh, playing the captain of another ship. This series will premiere on CBS in the spring before the remainder of the first season moves to the CBS All Access platform; hopefully, we’ll get some footage from it in the new year.
While we weren’t necessarily the biggest “Star Trek” fan growing up, it’s easy to be excited about this news given that Martin-Green understands franchise fans already from “The Walking Dead” and “Once Upon a Time”; plus, we’ve interviewed her before and found her to be a really lovely person who enjoys her work.
For those automatically freaking out, the report claims that Martin-Green will continue to play Sasha on the AMC drama. Given the way that the producers in Atlanta are structuring their episodes, with certain actors only appearing in a few episodes here and there, it’s rather easy to see how this could work.
What do you think about this casting? Share now in the comments below! (Photo: CBS.)