Star Trek: Discovery Loses Bryan Fuller as Showrunner

The new Star Trek TV series — Star Trek: Discovery — is marching along, and should begin production in Toronto soon. As a result, information about the still untitled new Star Trek TV show is still a little scarce, but it's adding to its behind-the-scenes crew as we speak...and soon we'll have news about those in front of the camera, as well.

Unfortunately, the first bit of news that we've had in awhile is bad news: Bryan Fuller has stepped down as showrunner on Star Trek: Discovery. From what Varietyreports, his responsibilities on other TV series (one of which is Starz's highly anticipated adaptation of American Godsand the other is the Amazing Stories reboot at NBC) is the factor.

There's a hint of good news here, though. The first two scripts for Star Trek: Discoverywere already completed by Fuller, and he has sketched out the season-long arc. What's more, CBS is happy with the broad strokes of the project, just not on the snail's pace that production seems to be progressing at. It's not clear what kind of involvement he'll have going forward as of this writing.

Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts will likely assume the role of showrunners, with Akiva Goldsman getting a "top creative role."

Star Trek: Discovery Release Date

Sad news, everyone: The Star Trek: Discovery premiere date has been pushed back to May. (It was previously scheduled to premiere in January.) Frankly, this makes a lot of sense given that, so far, there have been no casting announcements and showrunner Bryan Fuller is presumably still embroiled in American Gods stuff.

Here's the full statement from executive producers Fuller and Alex Kurtzman:

Bringing Star Trek back to television carries a responsibility and mission: to connect fans and newcomers alike to the series that has fed our imaginations since childhood. 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.

Before heading into production, we evaluated these realities with our partners at CBS and they agreed: Star Trek deserves the very best, and these extra few months will help us achieve a vision we can all be proud of.

Personally, I'd much rather Star Trek: Discovery take its time and push back the premiere date than rush and give us something that feels like it was rushed. Still, it feels like this is another aspect of the Star Trek franchise that CBS (and Paramount) could have handled a bit better in the 50th anniversary year.

Though we may have to wait a bit longer for Star Trek: Discovery, Fuller will no doubt keep us entertained with some show-specific Twitter clues. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, Bryan Fuller dropped a major hint about the plot of Star Trek: Discovery on Twitter...

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer

Paramount and CBS debuted a teaser for Star Trek: Discovery at San Diego Comic Con. Though we don't learn much about the new series from this concept art-y trailer, frankly, it's just nice to see a TV starship again and to know that the Star Trek TV show is on its way. Check out the full trailer for yourself...

We also have this initial teaser, which gives us even less visual detail, but does promise “new crews, new villains, new heroes, new worlds.” So that's something! Check it out...