‘Star Trek: Discovery’: 7 Actors Who Could Play Captain Pike in Season 2

The Star Trek: Discovery Season One finale episode “Will You Take My Hand?” ended on a huge cliffhanger moment.

The USS Discovery was en route to Vulcan to pick up its new captain. On the way, the ship received a distress signal from the USS Enterprise with a message from Captain Christopher Pike.

Fans of Star Trek: The Original Series will remember that Pike was the captain of the Enterprise in the show’s original pilot, “The Cage,” where he was played by Jeffrey Hunter. Though the character was replaced by William Shatner’s Captain Kirk, the pilot remains canon and Pike was written into the show’s mythos as the captain of the Enterprise prior to Kirk.

In the Star Trek timeline, the events of “The Cage” took place about two years prior to Pike sending that distress message to the Discovery in “Will You Take My Hand?” What that means for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery is still unclear, but the showrunners have offered some hints.

“Yeah, we can’t talk about specifics too much, but I think that because we are in canon, we look at things we know, and things we don’t know… and then there are the things we don’t know about the things we know!” Gretchen J. Berg said following the finale. “And there, often, you’ll find great opportunities for storytelling. But it is intriguing. It’s one of the fun things about playing within this box that is the timeline where we are.”

Co-showrunner Aaron Harberts added, “If there ever were to be a captain from canon that one could explore… Christopher Pike would certainly be that one.”

He’s right. Pike only ever showed up in prime timeline canon in the episode “The Menagerie,” where he was played in the past by Hunter, using footage from “The Cage,” and Sean Kenney in the present, after Pike suffered a disabling injury (Pike’s role was expanded in the Kelvin timeline reboot Star Trek movies, where he was played by Bruce Greenwood, but those films have no bearing on Discovery).

So if Star Trek: Discovery plans to further explore Christopher Pike, who could play the Enterprise’s old captain? Here are some ideas.

Kyle Chandler

You may recognize Kyle Chandler from the late 1990s CBS television series Early Edition or from his Emmy Award-winning performance as Coach Eric Taylor on NBC’s Friday Night Lights.

Since then, he’s appeared in several films, including King Kong, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Super 8, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, The Wolf of Wall Street, Carol, and Manchester by the Sea.

In 2015, he began starring in the Netflix Original Series Bloodline.

Anyone who has seen Chandler in Friday Night Lights knows that he has what it takes to play a commanding officer and a leader. Going from Coach Taylor to Captain Pike isn’t a huge leap.

Brett Dalton

Brett Dalton is best known for playing Grant Ward on ABC’s Marvel Cinematic Universe television tie-in series Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.

When Agents of SHIELD began, Dalton played Grant Ward as a straight-laced, by the book field operative for SHIELD. He was clean-cut and clearly on a path to the top of the agency.

It was eventually revealed that Ward was a Hydra agent. Once Ward got out from under his Hydra masters, Dalton began playing him with an intense unpredictability that brought a strong energy to his scenes.

If Dalton can combine straight-laced agent Ward with the sullen intensity of Ward gone rogue, he could make a fine Captain Pike.

Luke Evans

Luke Evans’ has a varied acting history. He began as a performer in London’s West End production including Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf. He broke into Hollywood in 2010 playing Apollo in Clash of the Titans and followed that up with performances in Immortals, The Raven, and The Three Muskateers.

Since then,  Evans has become involved in bigger roles in bigger franchises. He played Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit trilogy, Dracula, played Dracula in Dracula Untold, played Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and portrayed the creator of Wonder Woman in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Most recently, he’s turned to prestige television to star in TNT’s The Alienist. If he’d like to continue his career in television, he’s got the versatility and talent to take on Star Trek‘s Captain Pike.

Jon Hamm

After his performance as Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men, Jon Hamm should be allowed to do pretty much whatever he wants. The performance earned him two Golden Globe awards and an Emmy.

Perhaps more importantly for the role of Captain Pike, it showed that Hamm can carry a certain past sensibility that informed Captain Pike’s character, having been created in the 1960s. Pike is that era’s definition of a model man and as Don Draper Hamm showed the kind of smoothness and confidence needed to bring that to life.

He also showed the kind of internalized identity struggle that plagued Captain Pike in “The Cage” as well as the passionate temper that Pike showed as written by David Mack in the Star Trek: Discovery novel Desperate Hours.

James Marsden

James Marsden is another actor with a varied history. From Versace model to genre film star to indie film actor to fixture of HBO’s Westworld, Marsden career has an impressive span.

Perhaps no role would prepare him for being Captain Christopher Pike better than playing Cyclops in the X-Men movies. Scott Summers is practically a mutant Starfleet, combining idealism with a military discipline to lead a team into unparalleled danger.

It is true that Marsden is still attached to Westworld, but HBO’s hit science fiction series has such an irregular schedule that he’d likely have plenty of time to film as Captain Pike on the side.

Anson Mount

Anson Mount is primarily known for his roles in Hell on Wheels and playing the Inhuman king Black Bolt in Marvel’s Inhumans.

Granted, Marvel’s Inhumans ended up being quite disappointing and is probably something fans would rather forget. However, the problems with Marvel’s Inhumans can’t fairly be laid at Mount’s feet.

Sure, Mount didn’t have any lines – Black Bolt is a silent king, after all – but he still had great presence. Imagine taking Mount’s forceful physical acting and actually allowing him to not just speak, but to speak dialogue that’s better written than anything in Marvel’s Inhumans.

Playing Captain Pike could be the redemptive next act Mount needs.

Sebastian Stan

These days, Sebastian Stan is best known for playing James “Bucky” Barnes, the Winter Soldier, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, the star got his start in television playing roles like Carter Baizen in Gossip Girl, Prince Jack Benjamin in Kings, Jefferson in Once Upon a Time and TJ Hammond in Political Animals. That last role got him nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award.

Stan may have movie career now, but it isn’t uncommon for actors to take up prestige television jobs between major films. Stan’s performance as Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger shows that he’s capable of playing an upstanding military officer. His time as The Winter Soldier shows that he’s capable of showing that same soldier’s dark side.