‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Has Another Strange Production Hiccup [UPDATED]

Star Trek: Discovery has had no shortage of odd problems, from one of CBS’ top executives refusing to commit to a release date to Bryan Fuller walking away. Now, we can add another one to the list: CBS swapping an actor’s role in mid-production.

Penny Dreadful‘s Shazad Latif, back in December, was announced as Kol, commanding officer of the Klingons, along with Chris Obi and Mary Chieffo. Fast forward to today, when more cast members are announced and Latif has gotten a promotion to Lieutenant Tyler, with Kenneth Mitchell, most recently seen on Frequency, taking over for Kol, something CBS only lightly acknowledges in their press release. Making this especially unusual is that Discovery has been filming for almost three months now, so anything with Kol will either need to be rewritten or reshot. Even if Kol was only a minor role on the show, that’s not usually an expense TV shows can absorb.

While it’s not a fatal problem, it does add to the ongoing questions fans have about the show, which is supposed to anchor CBS All Access, CBS’s streaming service. We will, hopefully, get a chance to see just what’s next for Star Trek sometime this year.

[UPDATE: We misread CBS’ release, which does acknowledge the prior casting. We regret the error.]