Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 NYCC Trailer Reveals Premiere Date, Spock

A new trailer has been released for Star Trek: Discovery's second season. With it comes the first look at the "new" Spock and sets the premiere date as January 17, 2019. Click here for a few official images based on the trailer and if interested in a breakdown of the trailer head over to TrekMovie.

Star Trek: Discovery Poster Reveals Season Two Launch Date

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery premiered in January 2018, so it stood to reason that the second season might premiere in January 2019. In general, the scheduling of seasons for streaming services seems to be random, so that as a guess at best but it leaned into the disciplined release schedule that network television has long been accustomed to. As this new poster (left) from EW shows, those assumptions were spot on as Season Two is officially set for a January 2019 date. Exactly what date has not been determined but I would not be surprised if its duplicates the first season with a mid-January premiere, new episode each week and a few months break between each half of the season.

As for the poster, TrekMovie theorizes the seven red flashes are part of core mystery of the season that has Captain Pike temporarily transfer his command from the Enterprise to Discovery. The flashes were also referenced in the July trailer when he said "Federation sensors picked up seven red bursts, spread out across more than 30,000 light years. These mysterious signals are beyond anything we understand. Is it a greeting? A declaration of malice? Let’s find out." As for the winged figure in the center, safe to assume that is part of what the crew will discover (pun intended) over the course of the season.

Star Trek: Discovery "Short Treks" Scheduled

CBS All Access has scheduled the Star Trek: Short Treks videos that focuses on a single character from Star Trek: Discovery. Each of the four shorts of around 10 to 15 minutes long will air in the first week of the month leading to the second season premiere of Discovery. Below is a short commercial along with date and description of each episode.

“Runaway” – Thursday, Oct. 4
Onboard the U.S.S. Discovery, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) encounters an unexpected visitor in need of help. However, this unlikely pair may have more in common than meets the eye.
Written by Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman. Directed by Maja Vrvilo.

“Calypso” – Thursday, Nov. 8
After waking up in an unfamiliar sickbay, Craft (Aldis Hodge) finds himself on board a deserted ship, and his only companion and hope for survival is an A.I. computer interface.
Teleplay by Michael Chabon. Story by Sean Cochran and Michael Chabon. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi.

“The Brightest Star” – Thursday, Dec. 6
Before he was the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru (Doug Jones) lived a simple life on his home planet of Kaminar with his father and sister. Young Saru, full of ingenuity and a level of curiosity uncommon among his people, yearns to find out what lies beyond his village, leading him on an unexpected path.
Written by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt. Directed by Douglas Aarniokoski.

“The Escape Artist” – Thursday, Jan. 3
Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), back to his old tricks of stealing and double-dealing, finds himself in a precarious position aboard a hostile ship – just in time to try out his latest con.
Written by Michael McMahan. Directed by Rainn Wilson.

Spock Cast for Star Trek: Discovery

A new Spock has been anointed as Ethan Peck has been cast in the iconic role for Star Trek: Discovery's second season. As the show is set ~10 years before the Kirk Enterprise, this would the Spock that was second officer and lead science officer on the Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. Be curious if they will use The Cage (1st unused pilot of the show) as the basis for the character as that version was Vulcan in ears only as he smiled, joked, and displayed emotion like the human characters on the bridge. From showrunner Alex Kurtzman:

“Through 52 years of television and film, a parallel universe and a mirror universe, Mr. Spock remains the only member of the original bridge crew to span every era of Star Trek. The great Leonard Nimoy, then the brilliant Zachary Quinto, brought incomparable humanity to a character forever torn between logic and emotion. We searched for months for an actor who would, like them, bring his own interpretation to the role. An actor who would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock’s greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning. Ethan Peck walked into the room inhabiting all of these qualities, aware of his daunting responsibility to Leonard, Zack, and the fans, and ready to confront the challenge in the service of protecting and expanding on Spock’s legacy. In that spirit, we’re thrilled to welcome him to the family.”

Chris Pine, Hemsworth Out of Star Trek 4

It seems the future of Star Trek 4 is now in doubt as Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth deals have fallen through. Technically the movie could go forward but the rumored script always had a focus on Kirk and the mysterious return of his dad. Without either actor that means the existing script would likely have to be scrapped unless they just choose to recast both roles.

The reason for the failure to sign the two actors is pretty simple - money. The stars of both have risen significantly since the first movie, especially for Chris Hemworth. Chris Pine, thanks to the Wonder Woman films, is likely asking for a significant raise while Hemsworth is probably asking for near Marvel level bucks for his appearance which I would estimate is in the ~$10 million range. Also keep in mind with the #metoo movement that whatever pay that applies to those two would like result in similar pay being applied to Zoe Saldana with the remaining cast mates also then demanding a pay bump. Considering the $190M budget of Star Trek Beyond only returned $343M in worldwide box office, from Paramount perspective blowing ~1/3 of the budget just on salary isn't a wise return on investment. Sadly I am unable to disagree.

I do get both perspectives, especially for Chris Hemsworth. He is coming off carrying the Thor movies, Avengers 3 and general critical acclaim for whatever role he takes on. For example, he was about the only bright spot in the Ghostbusters reboot. In short, he has a strong argument to demand a high pay as he has a recent and strong argument that he puts butts in seats. Actually being true or not (cause being Marvel movies does a lot of the heavy lifting on that) doesn't matter, that is the perception that has often driven salary demands of this kind in the past.

The opposite of that argument ironically is Chris Pine. He has no proven box office record to speak of. He would point to Wonder Woman but he had nothing to do with the success of that movie. Literally any random male could have been in the same role and had the same impact box office wise. Really if need proof that he has no impact on box office results just look at his inability to put butts in seats for the dismal opening weekend of A Wrinkle in Time (which to be fair is a study on how to fail as a director in every way). In short, Chris Hemsworth can easily afford to hold the line on pay and pass on the movie. Chris Pine, frankly, cannot make the same argument despite is weird appearance in Wonder Woman 2.

What this all means is now Paramount has to decide if they are even moving forward with Star Trek 4 and then decide what new direction to take the story since the one in the works for the last year or so is out while hoping they can work something out with one or both actors. Often time pay scale in the Hollywood world is a sign of prestige in a film. For example the order that actor names appear on posters and in opening credits of a film can often be a hotly contested act when its multiple big name actors in a film that can be the result of months of negotiations to sort out (nope not kidding) and pay is similar. I don't see a scenario where Paramount is willing to meet Hemsworth's pay demands so once they resolve themselves to removing him from the equation, then Chris Pine can retain top pay and top name status which might be enough to get him to come back to the table for a payday they are willing to meet.

I guess the short of this is once again Star Trek 4 has returned to limbo and the movie future remains uncertain. At least the TV franchise's future remains strong.