'Star Trek: Discovery' Announces First Three Cast Members

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Star Trek: Discoveryhas found a few of its shipmates.

CBS announced on Tuesday the show's first three cast members -- Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth), Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

READ: 'Star Trek: Discovery' Premiere Delayed by 5 Months

Jones will star as Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer and a new alien species to the Star Trek universe. Rapp has been cast as Lt. Stamets, an astromycologist, fungus expert and Starfleet Science Officer aboard the Starship Discovery. And Yeoh will star as Captain Georgiou, the Starfleet Captain aboard the Starship Shenzhou.

Creator Bryan Fuller shared that the show would feature a female lead at the Television Critics Association press day over the summer, but that role will not be a captain at the start. There's still no word on who has been chosen to take on that part.

The casting announcement is good news for fans who suffered a setback in September after the highly anticipated series was pushed back from its original January 2017 launch date to May 2017. The reasoning for the five-month delay, according to
CBS, was to give the creative team "appropriate time" to deliver "the highest quality, premium edition" of the new Star Trek series.

READ: CBS' 'Star Trek: Discovery' Will Star Female Lead, Creator Reveals Major Clues to Series' Plot

Star Trek is returning to television a little more than 50 years after it first premiered on Sept. 8, 1966. According to a press release, "the series will feature a new ship, new characters, and new missions, while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers."

In August, Fuller hinted at the premise for the show, saying, "There's an incident, an event in Star Trek history and in the history of Starfleet that had been talked about but had never really been explored."

The 13-episode series will debut on CBS and its digital streaming service, CBS All Access.