The wait for new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery feels like forever given the mind-blowing events that unfolded at the end of Season 2. As you’ll recall, Control’s (Alan Van Sprang) armada of Section 31 ships threatened to destroy all sentient life. However, they were ultimately defeated by our heroes with help from unlikely allies like Xahian queen Po (Yadira Guevara-Prip), an army of newly-empowered Kelpians, and Chancellor L’Rell (Mary Chieffo) aboard a Klingon battle cruiser.
With the Discovery crew disappearing through a wormhole in order to save the galaxy from rogue AI, and Spock (Ethan Peck) convincing the Federation to essentially wipe their existence from memory, there are plenty of questions that need to be addressed when the CBS All Access series returns for Season 3. At least we know what’s next for Spock, who is set to star in a new Star Trek spin-off alongside Anson Mount‘s Captain Pike and Rebecca Romijn‘s Number One. But the question of where Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery crew initially land in the future and how they’ll navigate a strange new world looms.
As we wait to find out what happened after Burnham slingshot herself — with the Discovery in tow — to the distant future and whether she’ll reunite with her adoptive brother Spock after signaling to him that she was still alive, take solace in the intel TV Guide has gathered about the forthcoming episodes. Here’s everything we know about Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery so far.
Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Discovery
New episodes are on the horizon. We don’t yet have a premiere date but showrunner Alex Kurtzman announced via Twitter that the new season was “on its way.” Wilson Cruz previously suggested that Season 3 might be delayed amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, a new promo accompanying Kurtzman’s tweet again promised that new episodes are “coming soon.”
#Starfleet embarks on a new mission soon – #StarTrekDiscovery Season 3 is on its way. pic.twitter.com/7icyLaOcgo
— Alex Kurtzman (@Alex_Kurtzman) March 26, 2020
Filming on Season 3 has already been completed. Discovery wrapped filming on Feb. 25, several weeks before more than 100 shows halted production due to the coronavirus pandemic. Producer and director Olatunde Osunsanmi confirmed the news on Twitter, congratulating the cast and crew for “pulling off the impossible” again.
The new season beams to the future. After the events of the Season 2 finale, in which the Discovery crew disappeared through a wormhole, Season 3 finds them transported 930 years into the future and among a highly advanced but troubled society in dire need of their help.
Burnham and her crew may not have arrived in the future together. According to Jonathan Frakes, who returns to direct in Season 3, Burnham and the rest of the Discovery crew spent some time apart after traveling through a wormhole at the end of Season 2 before eventually coming back together. “We’re far in the future now and Burnham has been separated from the [Discovery] crew, and then they reunite,” Frakes told Star Trek magazine, according to TrekMovie.
Season 3 will have a different tone. Frakes also revealed that the series will take on a different tone given what Burnham has experienced after becoming the Red Angel.
“Michael Burnham has found a new core, not to mention a new partner in crime. So again, there’s a big tonal shift on that show, less driven by the pain and guilt of her past and more about the magical reunification of the Discovery crew and wherever she went off to,” Frakes told ComicBook.com. “God knows where she went as the Red Angel. So those two things coming back together is very much the theme, and how grateful everyone is and what’s next. It’s got a lot of action-adventure and not so much pain.”
A new showrunner has boarded the series. Writer Michelle Paradise, who joined Discovery midway through Season 2, was promoted to co-showrunner alongside Alex Kurtzman for Season 3. Paradise previously served as an executive producer on the CW series The Originals and the LOGO drama Exes & Ohs.
Your faves will be back. Stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman, Anthony Rapp, and Wilson Cruz are all slated to return, as will Michelle Yeoh‘s Captain Georgiou. No word yet on whether we’ll also see Anson Mount‘s Captain Pike or Ethan Peck’s Spock this season, but Peck previously told TV Guide that he’d like to come back as the beloved Vulcan. Both Peck and Mount reprised their roles in the Star Trek: Short Trek “Q&A” alongside Rebecca Romijn‘s Number One. Mount also returned in the Short Trek “Ask Not,” which saw him test a young cadet during a simulation. With all three poised to star in their own spin-off, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we’re holding out hope for the trio to drop by Discovery one last time before setting off on a new adventure.
Get ready to meet a ton of new people. With the show now set in a completely different time, expect to see many new faces including Supergirl alum David Ajala as Cleveland Booker. Book, as he’s known to his peers, is an original character and according to Ajala, is “slightly unorthodox.” The show’s official description refers to him as a “smart and capable” man with a “natural charisma and devil-may-care attitude that tends to get him into trouble as often as it gets him out.”
Discovery may never return to the past. The show’s trek into the distant future is sure to be a game-changer not just for the crew, but the series as a whole. “I don’t know if, on Discovery, we have plans to return to the 23rd century,” Kurtzman said during New York Comic Con in October 2019.
“We left our homes and can’t go back” Wiseman added. “Our true home is on Discovery and with the people that we work with on Discovery.”
Seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Discovery are currently available to stream on CBS All Access.
David Ajala and Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Discovery