We’re two-thirds of the way through Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, and as we’ve been expecting for some time, news has come through confirming our previous reporting: starship captain Anson Mount will be warping off to other adventures when this season comes to a conclusion in April.
As the actor first told fans back in December at the Official Star Trek Set Tour — including our own Alex Perry who attended the event — Discovery’s Captain Christopher Pike (Mount) will be beaming off the series at the conclusion of Season 2, Deadline now reports, as the actor was only signed to a one-season contract for the role.
In-universe, there’s still nearly a decade of adventure aboard the USS Enterprise before Captain Pike hands over his starship to James T. Kirk — Season 2 of Discovery is set in 2257, and Kirk takes command of the Enterprise in 2265 — so while Mount’s portrayal of Pike has been met with much praise by fans and critics alike, it’s no surprise that his stint aboard Discovery is coming to a close as the captain was only assigned to the USS Discovery on a temporary basis for the ‘red signal’ mission.
In addition, while she’s only been seen once so far this year, the Deadline report also notes that Rebecca Romijn (Number One) is also only contracted for this season of Discovery, so there don’t appear to be any plans for her character to continue into Season 3 at present.
This will end Star Trek: Discovery much as it’s first year concluded, as a starship without a captain. Pike was assigned to the Discovery in a temporary capacity anyway during the duration of the Red Angel mission — so will Season 3 find the ship in the hands of its original “new captain,” apparently waiting for the ship on Vulcan? Will Commander Saru (Doug Jones) finally lose the ‘acting’ from ‘acting captain’?
Or, will Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 bring another new cast member to the ship to lead next year’s missions? We’ll have to see how the last 5 episodes of 2019 play out.
Star Trek: Discovery returns this Thursday with “The Red Angel.”