'Star Trek: Discovery' cast: Details on Sonequa Martin-Green's lead character revealed

Culture

If you're already missing Sonequa Martin-Green's presence on The Walking Dead, you won't have to wait too long to see her on the small screen again. Following the season seven finale Sunday night, we learned more about Martin-Green's character on the upcoming CBS All Access Star Trek series, Star Trek: Discovery

Martin-Green will be playing First Officer Michael Burnham, according to the show's official Twitter account. 

According to Entertainment Weekly, the character's name was misrepresented as "Rainsford" by several publications, but "Rainsford" was a code name used by Star Trek: Discovery's production team prior to the character's formal announcement. While Martin-Green's character isn't the captain of the ship — the role was previously described as a lieutenant commander, another term for first officer, "with caveats" — she's still set to play the lead on the series. 

Typically, Star Trek shows are helmed by the ship's captain, so it's unclear how Star Trek: Discovery will approach this. One avenue, given the peculiar "with caveats" comment is that the ship's actual captain, who will be played by Jason Isaacs, could die early on in the series. This could mean First Officer Burnham has to take command of the ship. 

At this point, it's all speculative until we learn more about Star Trek: Discovery. The CBS All Access series (CBS' streaming service, which exclusively shows The Good Fight) hasn't been given an official release date, though the latest speculation is a late summer or early fall release, according to Entertainment Weekly. All we have so far are promising casting announcements — including Michelle Yeoh and Rainn Wilson — and a teaser trailer highlighting the titular ship. 

With any luck, Star Trek: Discovery will make its way to CBS All Access at some point this year. You can check out the show's teaser below. 

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