We’re only two days into this week, and there’s already more than a handful of Star Trek: Discovery news updates to bring you – from new set photos and series teaser videos to what may be coming next after 2018’s episodes conclude!

Revealed in a preview of the October 2017 SFX magazine, featuring a big Discovery cover feature, TrekMovie reports some new character details for several cast members coming out of new interviews in the publication.

James Frain (Sarek) — whom we talked to at Comic-Con in July — shared some insight into how Michael Burnham joins his household:

[We] see Sarek as a younger man, and we discover that he has been made responsible for Michael’s upbringing – her parents were killed while being hosted at the Vulcan Academy when there was a Klingon attack.

So we feel responsible for her, take her in, and I raise her in my family as a Vulcan.

In addition, we’re learning our first details about Michael Burnham’s Starfleet specialty, courtesy of Sonequa Martin-Green:

I’m a xenoanthropologist, I also had another field of study while at the Vulcan Science Academy. I’m the only human to have gone to the Vulcan Learning Centre and the Vulcan Science Academy and excelled at that.

As a xenoanthropologist, I’m also essentially and inherently a first contact specialist as well.

The Discovery-heavy issue of SFX will be out in the UK on August 16 and following soon in the United States, set to contain even more details from the series cast.

In a new interview out today with Digital Spy, series Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman (whom we also talked to at Comic-Con) is already looking ahead to where a potential second season of Star Trek: Discovery may lead, after the fallout from the Klingon/Federation “war” spans the breadth of year one.

Each season needs to be about a different thing. I wouldn’t necessarily want to bring the Klingon War into season two.

However, the results of the war are going to allow for a lot of new storytelling that will be the result of everything that happens and the people that are left behind; the casualties, the things that have grown in Starfleet as a result of the war. That’s what we’ll inherit in the second season.

CBS has not yet announced the series’ renewal for a second year, but with Discovery already being profitable before the first frame of the show was shot, we won’t be surprised if an early renewal is announced as the first season progresses.

In addition to what we learned from the SFX preview bits above, Kurtzman added this interesting tidbit about Michael Burnham’s backstory – likely shaped by the attack her family fell victim to in her youth:

[Burnham] is fascinated and fixated on alien races; particularly the Klingons, for reasons that we’ll come to understand are very personal for her.

Given the fact that we’re at war with the Klingons in the show, she’s going to have a lot to say and do about it.

Kurtzman also offered his opinion on future expansion of the Trek television landscape to Digital Spy in a separate conversation, which may one day expand to Bryan Fuller’s original anthology concept (which was rejected by CBS):

[An anthology show is] a cool idea, but at the same time, I’ve now fallen in love with the characters on [the Discovery]. I like seeing them. I like being with them. And I wouldn’t necessarily want to throw them away at the end of the season for a new show.

I would not want to limit our storytelling, especially given the topics that we’re bringing up this season. It’s not just one season’s worth of television. I think the idea might be that there are more Star Trek series [further down the line].

We’ll have to wait and see if Discovery will pave the way for future Trek television expeditions.

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CBS has continued to roll out new character-centric teaser clips for Discovery, continuing the trend we first reported on over the weekend.

Like clockwork (as we first pointed out on Twitter early Monday), two more arrived at 12:27 PM and 10:31 AM Pacific time Monday and Tuesday, following CBS’s trend of releasing media aligned with the series’ starships registries (Shenzhou: NCC-1227; Discovery: NCC-1031).

Here’s James Frain as Sarek, and Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly:

We’re expecting the week to continue with more videos, centered on characters like Shazad Latif’s Ash Tyler, Chris Obi’s T’Kuvma, Mary Chieffo’s L’Rell, and more.

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Sonequa Martin-Green had a brief discussion with E! at the recent Television Critics Association press event in Los Angeles, where she was asked about her reaction to backlash from certain ‘fans’ of Star Trek.

In addition, Martin-Green discussed some of the new-found ‘freedoms’ that a streaming presentation may allow the Discovery creators to expand the nature of Trek storytelling.

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Discovery Co-Executive Producer Ted Sullivan (who, along with writers Bo Yeun Kim and Erika Lippoldt we finally ran into at STLV – hi guys!) continues to share some glimpses from the set on his Twitter stream, showcasing several behind-the-scenes photos.

Sullivan with the young actress playing Michael Burnham as a child (name unknown):

Kim (center, below) also shared this fun group shot including all three writers with several Discovery cast members from on set.

Stay tuned for more Star Trek: Discovery news as it breaks!