Casting News: STAR TREK Discovers Michelle Yeoh [UPDATED]
UPDATE 2: Deadline reports that they have an inside source telling them Yeoh will play Captain Han Bo, commander of the Shenzhou, not the Discovery. This has not been confirmed by anyone at CBS.
Sources tell Variety that Yeoh’s role will be recurring, and that CBS TV Studios continues to search for a younger Latina or Afrcan-American actress for the role of “Number One”, the lieutenant commander around whom the show will center.
UPDATE 1: Reps from CBS have responded with, “We are not commenting on or confirming casting but the story that broke had inaccurate information.” No details on what part of the original story were “inaccurate”, however.
ORIGINAL STORY: Star Trek: Discovery finally has a crew member. Michelle Yeoh has boarded the project as the first in the cast.
Coming Soon reports that Nicholas Meyer confirmed the news, but there’s no word on the character Yeoh will be playing. Speculation is that she may be the lead, a lieutenant commander, although she would also be a good fit for the ship’s captain. Former showrunner Bryan Fuller has said that the captain would be female, and the show would center around the LCDR.
“I know Michelle Yeoh is in it,” Meyer told CS during a discussion of his 1979 sci-fi classic Time After Time, which was just released on Blu-ray from Warner Archive.
Meyer co-wrote and directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, considered by many two of the best in the series of films prior to J.J. Abrams’ reboot. Meyer is a consulting producer on Discovery, which has been the subject of concern for many after the debut schedule was pushed back from February to May in the wake of news that the production wasn’t ready. Since then, Fuller has stepped down as showrunner and casting has been very much under the radar.
No stranger to genre projects, Yeoh has appeared in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer, Babylon A.D., and Kung Fu Panda 2.
Star Trek: Discovery will be set in the years prior to the original Star Trek, and will have its run on the digital platform CBS All Access instead of traditional broadcast.
