After a week of hot rumors about the casting for STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, CBS has today officially named the first three names in the new Trek production’s on-screen team.

• Noted character actor Doug Jones will be portraying Lieutenant Saru, “a Starfleet science officer, and new alien species to the Star Trek universe.” Jones is well known for his work under prosthetic makeup – a natural for Trek – from such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy series, along with the recent Falling Skies television series.

• As previously reported, Michelle Yeoh has in fact beamed aboard of captain of the starship Shenzhou, but her character’s name is Captain Georgiou, not ‘Han Bo’ as rumored in the trades. Yeoh will portray the first on-screen Asian female captain of a Federation vessel.

• Finally, Anthony Rapp – one of the original cast members of RENT on Broadway – will take on the role of Lt. Stamets, science officer and astromycologist (“fungus expert”) aboard the Discovery. This casting choice continues Trek‘s longstanding tradition of including well-versed stage actors in its ensembles.

We don’t yet know much more about these characters or their role in the new show, but we’re glad to see CBS making some real news now about STAR TREK: DISCOVERY ahead of the May 2017 debut.