A release date for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 has yet to be announced, but two of the show’s stars have recently revealed that fans may have to wait a little bit longer for the next chapter of the CBS All Access series as extra precautions are being taken during the coronavirus pandemic.
Though Season 3 of the sci-fi series had already wrapped principal photography in February, its post-production is still ongoing. Wilson Cruz, who plays Hugh Culber in the series, hosted an Instagram Live chat on Wednesday morning. And when the topic of Star Trek: Discovery came up, Cruz’s co-star Anthony Rapp — who plays Paul Stamets in the show — chimed in via the comments section, informing fans that editing and visual effects work for the new season is still in progress. And because the crew is now working from home due to the global health crisis, delivering the finished product may take longer than the usual.
Since Cruz wasn’t able to comment on Star Trek: Discovery during the live chat, the actor took to Twitter afterwards to assure fans that Season 3 is “coming.” “It may be a little longer than we thought… It’s coming though!” he tweeted.
I didn’t see @albinokid’s comment this morning on #InstagramLive… but see for yourself in regards to #startrekdiscovery season 3. It’s coming, but it may be a little longer than we thought… It’s coming though! https://t.co/Ne5srvUogd
— Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) March 18, 2020
Plot details about Season 3 are being kept under wraps, but Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Jonathan Frakes, who have directed a couple of episodes in the new season, previously said that the third season will have a more optimistic tone than the first two.
“I can tell you this much about Season 3 of Discovery: It is in fact much more optimistic,” Frakes said during a convention appearance. “[For one] they’ve [already] gotten themselves out of the Mirror Universe.”
Frakes, who recently reprised his role as Will Riker in Star Trek: Picard, went on to share that the optimistic tone of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is somehow inspired by the time when writers decided to take a different tone for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine following the death of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry.
“After Gene died, some of the writers decided that Deep Space Nine should maybe take a different tone, which, I think, it did to certain degrees of success,” said Frakes. “The optimism that Gene infused in all of his shows and in all of us may not be as obvious as it once was, but it’s certainly the driving force of his vision and the franchise and [Alex] Kurtzman and all the people who run our shows are very conscious that that canon is important to all of you and all of us. … So I’m here to share that Discovery certainly is taking a more optimistic, traditional Star Trek approach in next season.”
In addition to Cruz and Rapp, Star Trek: Discovery also stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnhan), Doug Jones (Saru), Shazad Latiff (Ash Tyler), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), and Jason Isaacs (Gabriel Lorca), among many others.