Sonequa Martin-Green teases a “rawer, grittier” Star Trek: Discovery

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Months after word leaked that Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) would be the lead of Star Trek: Discovery, CBS has finally made it official. Hot on the heels of the season finale of The Walking Dead, CBS has welcomed Martin-Green aboard as well as revealing the name of her character: First Officer Michael Burnham.

Sonequa Martin-Green has already been shooting on the series for a while, but now that she can finally talk about it, she was able to give a slight tease to TVLine about what sort of Star Trek series we should expect.

This iteration of Star Trek is going to have a different take than the others in the Star Trek canon. It’s going to be bigger, rawer and grittier… and the story’s going to build on itself. It’s going to be a tremendous journey.

I don't know about you, but there's something about using "gritty" or "raw" to describe a project, especially one like Star Trek, which makes me roll my eyes. I'm all for something different however, just as long as it's still Star Trek at its heart, and we already know one of the ways in which Star Trek: Discovery will be shaking up the status quo. Each of the previous Star Trek series have been through the eyes of their commanding officer, but Discovery will be "coming from [his second-in-command’s] mindset," which Sonequa Martin-Green says "is going to be refreshing and challenging in ways that are very thrilling." For her part, Martin-Green is fully aware of the responsibilities of not only leading a series, but leading one which originates from one of the most popular TV shows of all-time.

There’s definitely a lot of responsibility to being the lead of any show, and obviously to be the lead of this, [an offshoot of] one of the most popular, if not the most popular, television series of all-time… you can certainly get lost in it if you allow yourself to, and just sort of be frozen. But I hope that I can bear the weight, if you will, of this legacy and of this story, because I certainly want to do it justice.

As a life-long Star Trek fan, I know I'll be there for the premiere (which is currently looking like it will arrive around late summer, early fall), but I've been somewhat concerned by the series already experiencing so many issues, however, I remain hopeful that the Star Trek: Discovery team have been able to use the many delays to their advantage. Fingers crossed!