Here's Why One Star Trek Star Turned Down A Star Trek Discovery Role

Michael Dorn, best known to fan as Lieutenant Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation, has no plans to appear in Star Trek: Discovery at this point -- because he couldn't come to a deal with CBS.

After Dorn was reportedly misquoted online as saying he would be in the upcoming CBS show -- which will be available exclusively through their online All Access app -- the actor clarified that there had been some conversations with producers, but that nothing came of it.

However, an Orlando Sentinel theater critic, Matt Palm, provided Trek Movie with a statement that went beyond that and gave a very specific reason for Dorn's decision: the money offered was apparently very little.

"I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that Mr. Dorn did not say he was going to be on the new Star Trek show," Palm wrote. "In fact, he went to great lengths explaining why he would not be on the new show – that there had been interest expressed, but he was not offered enough money. He said they had offered him less than 1 percent of what he made in his last contract as Worf."

Of course, Dorn would have made more money for The Next Generation, in which Worf was a major character. Still, a reduction that significant seems to suggest that he was likely being offered little more than a cameo anyway.

The role would reportedly have been to portray an ancestor of Worf. Dorn had already done that once before, when Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country brought him in as a Worf who would defend Kirk and McCoy at trial.

As First Officer Michael Burnham, Sonequa Martin-Green and Star Trek: Discovery are breaking new ground for the Star Trek franchise as this will be the first time that a Star Trek series has not had a captain or the highest ranking Starfleet officer as the main character.

Of course, Star Trek: Discovery and the USS Discovery will have a captain: Captain Lorca will be played by Jason Isaacs, best known for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.

Additional cast members include Rainn Wilson as Star Trek: The Original Series character Harry Mudd, and James Frain as Sarek, Spock's father, and Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou, the captain of another Starfleet ship, the Shenzhou, which will be important to the plot of Star Trek: Discovery. Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp both play science officers. Mary Wiseman will play a final year Starfleet Academy cadet.

Star Trek: Discovery was originally slated for a May debut, but a production delay has pushed the release window back to early fall. When it does premiere, the first episode Star Trek: Discovery will air on CBS. The remainder of the 13-episode first season will debut on CBS's streaming subscription service CBS All Access.

Star Trek: Discovery was created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. Fuller was originally intended to be Discovery's showrunner but was forced step down due to commitments to Starz' adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods series. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts have taken over as showrunners.

Star Trek: Discovery will mark Star Trek's return to television after a 12-year absence following the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. The series takes place roughly a decade prior to the five-year mission of Star Trek: The Original Series.

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