After yesterday’s big San Diego Comic-Con panel for Star Trek: Discovery, we hopped backstage with the cast and crew for time in the press room to find out more about these characters and their role in the Trek universe!
Shazad Latif, originally cast back in December into one of the show’s Klingon roles, later moved to the role of a Starfleet lieutenant this spring in a bit of a surprising switch.
TrekCore contributor Sam Darragh of the Trekkie Girls was our roving reporter at yesterday’s press junket, and she caught up with Latif to chat about his character, Lt. Ash Tyler, and the change in position within the Discovery cast.
TREKCORE: Thank you very much for talking to us. Just interested to learn about your character, Lietenant Tyler.
LATIF: So I play Lieutenant Tyler, he’s a Starfleet officer. We meet him as a P.O.W. in a prison cell.
TREKCORE: A P.O.W.!
LATIF: Prisoner of war.
TREKCORE: Okay, yeah.
LATIF: He’s gone through some horrible things and we follow him as he as he tries to find the sort of man that he is as he comes back to the ship and that’s about as much as I can say!
TREKCORE: That’s quite a lot, actually – quite a lot! You were originally cast as one of the Klingons.
LATIF: Yeah, so I arrived in Toronto where we started to get the scripts in early for rehearsal, and this character of Tyler was open, and the producers said, “Would you like to try out for this?” and I went, “Yes!” It’s a great looking part. So we did that, and it worked out, and it was a good [fit].
TREKCORE: And what’s your position on board?
LATIF: I’m a security officer.
TREKCORE: Security officer, oh well we look forward to learning more about you, and thank you so much for talking to us!
This brand-new information about Latif’s character plays into the war with the Klingons expected in the new series, which Discovery’s Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs) blames on Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), as seen in the newest trailer for the series.
We haven’t seen Lieutenant Tyler on-screen just yet, but that’s sure to change as we approach the September 24 launch date of Star Trek: Discovery.