With The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green, among others, already onboard CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, it’s fair to have rather high expectations for the show. Jason Isaacs joining the cast is only more cause for celebration. Isaacs will play Captain Lorca of the U.S.S. Discovery, per the show’s official Twitter:
The U.S.S. Discovery has its captain! Welcome aboard @jasonsfolly & Mary Wiseman: https://t.co/SMoDXSEctK#StarTrekDiscoverypic.twitter.com/1EvJtduDpi
— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) March 7, 2017
Mary Wiseman (Baskets) has also been cast as Cadet Tilly, “a Starfleet Academy Cadet in her final year of study, also assigned to the Discovery,” per CBS’ announcement. She and Isaacs join a cast that already includes Terry Serpico, Maulik Pancholy, Sam Vartholomeos, James Frain, Doug Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Rapp, Chris Obi, Shazad Latif and Mary Chieffo.
Isaacs, known for recent roles in The OA and A Cure for Wellness, and as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, announced his place in Discovery thusly:
Nice chair. Hope it’s comfy. pic.twitter.com/xwfdWAmBQW
— Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) March 7, 2017
The release date of the show is still up in the air, Variety reports, both due to a change in command of the show (away from Bryan Fuller) and CBS executives’ perfectionism. CBS chief Leslie Moonves, after describing Star Trek as CBS’ “family jewels,” commented that the series would be instrumental in popularizing CBS’ new “All Access” streaming program:
We know for a fact that the other versions of Star Trek—there were seven other series, some of them were great and some of them were terrible—they all did really well on Netflix. That gave us great confidence that this was the right choice to put the full court press on ‘All Access.’
Watch a promo for the forthcoming series below, and find more of Paste‘s coverage of Star Trek: Discovery here.
Production has begun on the next chapter. #StarTrekDiscovery is coming to CBS All Access. https://t.co/b1uni2YyKppic.twitter.com/19pmY4JBFd
— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) January 31, 2017