Doug Jones on the mysterious origins of his Star Trek: Discovery character

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Even if you've never seen his face, you've almost certainly seen the work of Doug Jones. He's played Abe Sapien in both HELLBOY movies, Silver Surfer in FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, The Faun & The Pale Man in PAN'S LABYRINTH, and plenty of other roles which frequently call for the lanky actor to be covered in latex. One of Doug Jones' upcoming roles will be Lt. Saru on Star Trek: Discovery, and Jones spilled a few details about the origins of his mysterious character while speaking with Entertainment Weekly.

Doug Jones said that the producers have told him that Saru is "the Spock of the series, he’s the Data of the series — and those are beloved characters that I always connect with whenever I would watch the past incarnations of Star Trek. On Falling Skies, I played an alien species who came to Earth to help the humans fight back the bad aliens who’d taken over, and I was intelligent, well-spoken, had a lot of answers and science-y smart. Saru is all of those things and then some." Star Trek: Discovery co-showrunner Aaron Harberts dropped a few more details about Saru, saying that he comes from a planet where he's a "prey species" and is the "first of his kind to make it to Starfleet."

Saru's species are known as Kelpiens and are constantly in danger from the more dominant predator species which reside on the same planet. This has led to Saru's species evolving heightened survival instincts, which may explain Saru's line in the Star Trek: Discovery trailer in which he says that he can sense approaching death. Prey species such as Kelpiens are typically looked down upon as they tend to have a cowardly reputation in the Federation, but apparently Saru should "not be underestimated."

Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, a brilliant Starfleet first officer, as well as the first human educated on Vulcan, who's forced to make an impossibly difficult decision which impacts the entire Federation. The cast of Star Trek: Discovery will be making an appearance at Comic-Con during a panel which will take place on Saturday at 2:30pm in Ballroom 20. The upcoming Star Trek series isn't Doug Jones' only upcoming role, he'll also be playing the creature in Guillermo del Toro's THE SHAPE OF WATER, which recently released its first trailer.

Star Trek: Discovery will debut on CBS on September 24, 2017 before moving to CBS All Access.