'Star Trek Discovery' Promises Diverse Cast with Female Lead & Gay Character

The newest Star Trek series, Star Trek Discovery, hits CBS All Access in January, and last night, executive producer Bryan Fuller revealed some key details about what we can expect to see. 

The big news? This is going to be the most diverse series yet. Set 10 years before Captain Kirk's time—we're talking original series here, not the J.J. Abrams movies—the show will star a female lieutenant commander, a lot of aliens and at least one gay character. No one has been cast yet, but there will absolutely be diversity on the bridge, within the human race as well as aliens.

“Absolutely we’re having a gay character,” Fuller said, adding that when he was working on Star Trek Voyager, he got a lot of hate mail after a rumor circulated saying there was going to be a gay character on the show. He apparently kept it all, promising himself that if he ever got his own Star Trek show, he'd definitely include one.

“We’ve come a long way since then." he said. "I feel like actually gay rights have come a lot further in that time that race issues and women’s issues.”