Star Trek: Discovery’s Ethan Peck Still Hoping for Pike Spinoff

Star Trek: Discovery star Ethan Peck was a guest at this weekend’s Terckonderoga convention in Ticonderoga, New York. Peck played Spock in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery. During his panel, he discussed how he had to take some half-measures with his appearance on the show.

Part of playing a Vulcan means having the alien race’s distinct eyebrows. Peck revealed that the Discovery showrunner seemed unsure at first if Peck would be playing Spock for the long haul. Not wanting to put him out of contention for other jobs if things went in that direction, they covered up his eyebrows rather than having him shave them.

“They had to completely block out my eyebrows because of a contractual situation for me,” Peck said (via TrekNews). “I’m not sure they thought I was going to work. So they were like ‘probably five episodes,’ and I took that to mean that they were rolling the dice with me a little bit. This is such a special character that is special to so many people… and I totally could have cracked and crumbled under pressure — and I thought I might, too. So they had me episode-by-episode and to do this (shaving his eyebrows) would really take me out of other work opportunities.”

He went on to say that this is part of why he hopes Discovery‘s Enterprise crew gets a spinoff, so he can more fully commit to the role. “So, hopefully… Anson (Mount), Rebecca (Romijn) and I are all hoping to have a spinoff of our own and we can do all this proper.”

While Peck had to hide his own eyebrows with prosthetics, Spock’s beard was natural. “The beard was my own,” he said. “About a month before I went out (to start filming), Alex Kurtzman, the showrunner—who became the showrunner as I joined the show—he was like ‘don’t shave.’ When he told me that Spock was going to have a beard, I was like ‘Oh, shoot. I’m going to be Spock with a beard, people are going to absolutely smash me online. And of course a lot of people did—which is is fine, it’s to be expected. People are going to think what they’re going to think, and can’t control that. So I just do my best. And I thought it’d be gone in an episode or two. I think Alex liked it so much, and I think they were still developing the end of the season in the writer’s room when I joined. It stayed… and I’m so glad it did.”

Peck will return as Spock in upcoming episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks. He’s joined by Anson Mount as Capt. Christopher Pike and Rebecca Romijn as Number One aboard the USS Enterprise.

Are you still hoping for Pike’s Enterprise crew to get a Star Trek spinoff series? Let us know in the comments.