Bryan Fuller steps back from showrunner duties on Star Trek: Discovery

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

When word first emerged that a new Star Trek television series was in development, I wasn't entirely sure who I wanted pulling the strings behind-the-scenes, but as soon as Bryan Fuller was announced as showrunner, I was immediately excited. Not only did Fuller have a background with Star Trek, having worked on both Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but he had also given us such wonderful shows as Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me and, my personal favourite, Hannibal. Fuller has also become quite busy in the past year, overseeing Starz's American Gods and prepping a reboot of Amazing Stories for NBC. Unfortunately it seems that juggling all those projects has become a bit much as Variety reports that Bryan Fuller has stepped back from his showrunner role on CBS's Star Trek: Discovery.

Variety's sources say that CBS has been very happy with what Fuller has done so far, but that they've become "increasingly concerned that he had too much on his plate" and weren't willing to delay the premiere once more. Star Trek: Discovery was originally slated to premiere on CBS All Access in January 2017, but that date was later pushed back to May in order to give the team more time to perfect their vision. Although Fuller will be stepping down from showrunning duties, he'll be actively involved as an executive producer and will still take part in breaking stories as Discovery will continue following the path Fuller laid out.

Here's CBS' official word on the subject:

We are extremely happy with the creative direction of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and the strong foundation that Bryan Fuller has helped us create for the series. Due to Bryan’s other projects, he is no longer able to oversee the day-to-day of ‘Star Trek,’ but he remains an executive producer, and will continue to map out the story arc for the entire season…Bryan is a brilliant creative talent and passionate ‘Star Trek’ fan, who has helped us chart an exciting course for the series. We are all committed to seeing this vision through and look forward to premiering ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ this coming May 2017.

The day-to-day showrunning will be handed over to Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts and it's expected that Akiva Goldsman will be joining the series in a "top creative role" by serving as producing support for Berg and Harberts. CBS has high-hopes for Star Trek: Discovery as it's expected to be the main draw for their CBS All-Access subscription streaming service, and, with the budget said to be approaching the $6-7 million per episode range, they've got a lot to lose as well. We've had no casting announcements for Star Trek: Discovery yet, but sources say that most of the roles have already been cast, except for the lead character who is said to be a human woman who won't be the captain.