Sonequa Martin-Green Believes Landing 'Star Trek: Discovery' Role Was Part of Divine Plan

Sonequa Martin-Green is a talented actress, which is enough to explain how she got the lead role [...]

Sonequa Martin-Green is a talented actress, which is enough to explain how she got the lead role in Star Trek: Discovery, but Martin-Green herself credits a higher power.

Martin-Green spoke to Essence about her time on The Walking Dead and landing the role of Michael Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery. Martin-Green says it is not how she expected her career to go but believes it is all part of a divine plan.

"I just did not think that this would be the next step after The Walking Dead," Martin-Green said. "I know [God] has a plan and I'm very on board with his plan because I think it's divine and much better than anything I could plan, I was very hopeful when The Walking Dead was wrapping up. I was excited for the next step.

"Then, Star Trek came and I was excited to do it on a digital streaming platform, but more than that [I was excited] that they wanted to do it with a Black woman," she continues. "They were quite adamant about that. And, I thought that maybe through the casting process that might change because I've seen those things before, but they stuck to it.

"It all timed out, it was all very divine how it timed out."

There were some extraordinary measures taken to accommodate Martin-Green's transition from The Walking Dead to Star Trek: Discovery. Though some rumors slipped out, AMC was so committed to secrecy concerning the death fo Martin-Green's Walking Dead character, Sasha, that CBS All Access couldn't formally announce that Martin-Green had been cast until after Sasha's death aired in The Walking Dead's Season Seven finale. More problematic was that Martin-Green couldn't begin filming Star Trek: Discovery until after the finale aired either for fear that her presence on the Toronto set would leak out and reveal that she was leaving The Walking Dead, leading to delays in Star Trek: Discovery's production.

Things all worked out and Martin-Green and she even earned a Saturn Award Nomination for her first season playing Michael Burnham, one of five nominations for Star Trek: Discovery.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the United States, through CraveTV in Canada, and through Netflix in other international markets. Star Trek: Discovery Season Two begins filming in Toronto in April.

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