'Star Trek: Discovery' Showrunners Confirm Season 2 Episode Count, No Release Window

From WonderCon in Anaheim, California, the Star Trek: Discovery showrunners have revealed some new details about the show's upcoming second season.

TrekMovie was on hand at WonderCon to speak to the series' showrunners, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg. The showrunners revealed that CBS All Access has ordered 13 episodes for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Fans may remember that CBS All Access originally ordered 13 episodes for Star Trek: Discovery's first season. The order was later extended to 15 episodes during production, and the decision to split the season into two "chapters" with a hiatus between the two was also made.

Harberts and Berg also reaffirmed that Star Trek: Discovery would begin production in April.

What the showrunners could not confirm was a release window. The showrunners revealed that CBS has not given them a target release date as of yet.

Co-creator Alex Kurtzman has previously estimated that the second season of Star Trek: Discovery may not premiere until 2019. But it is entirely plausible for the show to premiere in 2018 if production is beginning in April.

However, it is important to keep in mind that Star Trek: Discovery is one of the highest-budgeted shows currently being produced and its heavy reliance on futuristic sci-fi design elements means that a lot of post-production work is put into each episode. Considering all of that, it could be that Kurtzman was offering an overly-conservative estimate for the show's premiere in order to avoid the same fan agitation over production delays that plagued the show's first season, or he could have been being realistic given how much work will have to be done even after principal photography on each episode is complete.

Another consideration is CBS All Access' growing content schedule. CBS All Access has greenlit several new shows for 2018 and now boasts a lineup just large to enough to space out throughout the year without having to overlap big debuts. The second season of The Good Fight is airing now. The show $1 is expected to premiere in August. The Twilight Zone reboot is expected to premiere in the fall. There's also new series Strange Angel and Tell Me a Story, plus the return of comedy series No Activity.

That's all to say that finding the perfect window for Star Trek: Discovery Season Two to get the attention it deserves without stealing the spotlight from another CBS All Access series could be a delicate task.

CBS did release a "secret scene" that was removed from the first season finale of Star Trek: Discovery. The scene confirms a major fan theory about the show and could hint at things to come in season two.