Anson Mount has joined “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 2 in the role of Capt. Christopher Pike, Variety has learned.
Caution: spoilers ahead. In the closing moments of the first season finale of the CBS All Access series, the Discovery receives an emergency distress call from a nearby Federation starship. The ship turns out to be the USS Enterprise under Pike’s command.
Mount will be the fourth actor to portray Pike, who preceded James T. Kirk as the captain of the Enterprise. Jeffrey Hunter played the role in the original, unused “Star Trek: The Original Series” pilot, with footage from that episode later being repurposed in the two-part episode “The Menagerie.” Also in “The Menagerie,” Sean Kenney played an older–and the most iconic–version of Pike, confined to a brainwave-operated wheelchair and unable to communicate save for a blinking light. Finally, Bruce Greenwood played the character in the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot film and its sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
Mount is best known for his starring role in the AMC period drama “Hell on Wheels.” He currently stars in the ABC Marvel series “Inhumans,” which is not expected to return for a second season, and previously starred in the NBC legal drama “Conviction.”
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He is repped by UTA and Brookside Artist Management.
Speaking with Variety after the season finale, “Discovery” executive producer Alex Kurtzman said that the Enterprise will play an important role in Season 2, but it will not be the main focus.
“The show is called ‘Discovery.’ It’s not ‘Enterprise,’” Kurtzman said. “So yes, the Enterprise will play a part of Season 2 but it will absolutely not overshadow Discovery. And I think with Enterprise’s arrival in the finale we recognize that the audience has a lot of questions about our synchronicity with the original series, which really means or synchronicity with canon.”
