How The Walking Dead Prepared Sonequa Martin-Green For Star Trek: Discovery

Sonequa Martin-Green's time on The Walking Dead taught her some important lessons she needs to know for her Star Trek: Discovery role.

Being on a show as popular as The Walking Dead helped prepare Martin-Green for the enormous amount of attention and scrutiny she's now experiencing as the lead of a Star Trek series.

"I've been calling my time on Walking Dead my sort of postgraduate degree," Martin-Green told Entertainment Tonight at the TCAs. "I learned so much about being on a show that has such a massive reach."

However, even the massively popular The Walking Dead can't compare to taking the lead of Star Trek, a franchise with a 50-year legacy.

"This has expanded even beyond what I witnessed on that show," Martin-Green said. "I've been trying to put it into words [how dedicated the fans are] and I've been kind of sort of getting it a little bit, I've been skimming the surface of how deep and profound it is to me, and how grateful and honored I truly am."

Martin-Green was cast as Commander Michael Burnham by Star Trek: Discovery creator Bryan Fuller before he left the series. Fuller was so impressed by Martin-Green that he convinced CBS to further delay the start of production on Star Trek: Discovery in order to wait for Martin-Green to be released from her The Walking Dead contract.

Set 10 years prior to the five-year mission of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Discovery follows the adventures of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new lifeforms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. 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.

Star Trek: Discovery's cast also includes Jason Isaacs as the starship Discovery's Captain Lorca, Rainn Wilson as Star Trek: The Original Series character HarryMudd, James Frain as Sarek, Spock's father, and Michelle Yeoh as CaptainGeorgiou, 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 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. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts have taken over as showrunners.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24, 2017.

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