Bryan Fuller is stepping down as showrunner on “Star Trek: Discovery,” with executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts taking his place, TheWrap has learned.
The new “Star Trek” series is due to start filming next month in Toronto, Canada, and will premiere in May on CBS’ streaming platform, CBS All Access.
“We are extremely happy with the creative direction of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and the strong foundation that Bryan Fuller has helped us create for the series,” CBS said in a statement. “Due to Bryan’s other projects, he is no longer able to oversee the day-to-day of Star Trek, but he remains an executive producer, and will continue to map out the story arc for the entire season. Alex Kurtzman, co-creator and executive producer, along with Fuller’s producing partners and longtime collaborators, Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts, will also continue to oversee the show with the existing writing and producing team.
“Bryan is a brilliant creative talent and passionate ‘Star Trek’ fan, who has helped us chart an exciting course for the series. We are all committed to seeing this vision through and look forward to premiering ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ this coming May 2017,” the network continued.
Fuller has written two episode scripts for the new series, and the new showrunners are expected to follow Fuller’s Season 1 outline as a blueprint.
The restructuring of the “Discovery” writing team will allow Fuller to contribute creatively while finishing up Season 1 of Starz’s “American Gods” and developing a reboot of “Amazing Stories” for NBC.
As originally planned, the premiere episode of “Discovery” will air on CBS, with all subsequent episodes available in the U.S. exclusively on CBS All Access. Each episode of the series will be available globally within 24 hours of its U.S. premiere, presented on Netflix in 188 countries and through Bell Media platforms in Canada.
“Star Trek: Discovery” is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, Fuller’s Living Dead Guy Productions and Roddenberry Entertainment. Kurtzman, Fuller, Heather Kadin, Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth will serve as executive producers.