Star Trek Discovery will premiere ‘late summer, early fall,’ CBS head says

Star Trek Discovery has had a tumultuous road to its debut, facing a string of delays, but CBS president Les Moonves says the show will debut by early Fall.

Moonves made the announcement while speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference earlier today, as reported by Deadline. Although he didn’t give a specific release date, the clarification that Discovery will debut this year may come as a relief. After Discovery was delayed again in January, the network decided not to give an estimated launch window as a way of not putting additional pressure on the series. A rep told The Hollywood Reporter at the time it was more important for the network to get it right than do it fast.

“This is an ambitious project; we will be flexible on a launch date if it's best for the show,” the rep said. “We've said from the beginning it's more important to do this right than to do it fast. There is also added flexibility presenting on CBS All Access, which isn't beholden to seasonal premieres or launch windows.”

Discovery was supposed to premiere in early 2017, but was delayed following production issues. Not long after those came to light, showrunner Bryan Fuller parted ways with CBS, giving his full attention to American Gods, the other series he was working on for Starz. Before leaving, however, Fuller noted that production on a show like Discovery was of the utmost importance and that had to be their first priority.

“We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality,” Fuller said in a statement.

Star Trek Discovery, which stars Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth), Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Lieutenant Saru, Lieutenant Stamets and Captain Georgiou respectively, takes place just before the original series. Sonequa Martin-Green, best known for her role as Sasha Williams in The Walking Dead, has signed on to play the show’s main character: lieutenant commander of the USS Discovery.

Star Trek Discovery will premiere on CBS before moving to the network’s streaming service, CBS All Access. The show will be distributed globally via Netflix.