Star Trek: Discovery Reveals New Klingon Character Kol

Star Trek: Discovery has revealed the intimidating first look at Klingon Commander Kol.

Take a look at actor Kenneth Mitchell in full Klingon makeup and costume as Kol in the image below.

The reveal was made during a panel at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, where Mitchell recalled showing the photo to his son.

“Now all my son wants to do is play Klingon,” he laughed.

Mitchell went on to detail the three-and-a-half hour process of getting into his Klingon makeup, plus another half hour of getting into costume, and what he does to pass the time.

“First, Doug Jones (Saru) comes in and gives me a hug,” Mitchell joked at first. “I’m always going over the Klingon language. I’m constantly running my lines over and over again [while getting ready]. Because it’s incredibly difficult. It takes a lot of muscle memory pronouncing the syllables over and over again.

“It’s very much like an opera,” Mitchell continued. “Even if you don’t understand the language, you understand the emotions and the body language.”

The Klingons are said to play a very important role in Star Trek: Discovery as the Klingon Empire and the Federation find themselves at war with each other, so fans should probably expect to see a lot of Kol.

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 was announced in 2015 and, though the series intends to abandon at least one key Roddenberry principal and adjust the series for modern expectation, CBS hoped to have the series debut as part of Star Trek‘s 50th-anniversary celebration. CBS missed that window and instead, the series will come close to a debut on the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24, 2017.