Star Trek: Discovery Adds a Gay Character Plus More Surpising Twists

Fans have a reason to rejoice because the lineup for Star Trek: Discovery is starting to pile up! New casts and characters were recently announced. Aside from Michelle Yeoh, two new cast members will be joining the troop like Anthony Rapp who will play the first ever gay character in the history of Star Trek, both in film or TV.

Anthony Rapp will play the part of Lt. Stamets, who is an astromycologist, a fungus expert. He will be playing a gay character, whom the executive producer Bryan Fuller think was an important move for the show. In August, he was quoted saying “Absolutely we’re having a gay character.” Fuller, who is gay, noted that while working on Star Trek: Voyager, he received a file’s worth full of hate mail after there was a rumor that a character on the show might come out. Fuller said he was determined that if he ever did his own Star Trek show, there would be a character who is gay. “We’ve come a long way since then.”

Interestingly, although Rapp will become the first gay character to be originally thought that way, it should be remembered that Star Trek Beyond revealed its iteration that Sulu is gay. Despite the brave move made by Star Trek Beyond, not all of fans were happy with it. In fact, actor George Takei who originally played Sulu and a self-confessed gay himself said that it will be more helpful to introduce an all new gay character, someone who will be "fleshed out from scratch." Apparently, it will be Lt. Stamets.

Michelle Yeoh will also be joining the cast and many think that she will be playing the role of a high ranking officer, particularly Captain Georgiou. Actor Doug Jones is also cast for Star Trek: Discovery. He will play Lieutenant Saru, an all new species of the Star Trek universe.