‘Star Trek Discovery’ TV show delayed again as James Frain added as Spock’s father

Star Trek: Discovery won’t be arriving anytime soon, but they did find out that Spock’s dad will indeed be part of the new show as True Blood alum James Frain has landed the role of Sarek.

Per EW, Frain’s casting gives fans a better idea of the show’s timeline in relation to the rest of the Star Trek universe.

Discovery was first set to arrive this month, then as creator/showrunner Bryan Fuller began work filling out his writers room and nailing down the new characters and stories, that date became an impossibility. Fuller was pushed out of the show back in October with timing apparently a factor in CBS’s decision, and executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts picked up the baton as the new showrunners.

Sonequa Martin-Green landed the lead role in the series last month, but now CBS is worried about marketplace confusion; if they were to start promoting her as the star of Star Trek: Discovery while she’s still on the air as part of The Walking Dead, audiences might be confused.

CBS then set May as the Star Trek: Discovery premiere date, but now EW reports that that’s no longer the case.

Frain is a TV veteran with scene-stealing roles on shows ranging from 24 to The Tudors to Grimm. Most recently, he had a regular role in the second season of True Detective and a recurring gig on Orphan Black. Frain played Azrael on Fox’s Gotham.

This fall is a possibility, as that’s when new shows usually ramp up promotion, but right now an official date hasn’t yet been targeted, and since Discovery doesn’t depend on traditional network schedules, it’s really open-ended as to when the series might drop.

Production on Star Trek: Discovery still begins this week in Toronto, but with the premiere date now open-ended, it leaves the creative team with a less stressful work environment.

Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) were brought in as consultants when Fuller left to keep this thing on track.

In addition to Martin-Green as a lieutenant commander aboard the Discovery, the cast includes Michelle Yeoh as Starfleet Captain Georgiou, Doug Jones as Starfleet Science Officer and alien Lt. Saru, Anthony Rapp as “astromycologist” and fungus expert Lt. Stamets, and a trio of kilngons played by Chris Obi, Shazad Latif, and Mary Chieffo.

James Frain on “Gotham”