Mr. Spock is coming to Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access in its second season, but who will be playing the iconic character?
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While fans don’t know the answer to that just yet, it is a done deal. While he kept the name under wraps, Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman previously confirmed the role has already been cast.
“We are, we are casting a new Spock,” Kurzman said. “It’s not just a possibility, it’s been done.”
Kurtzman also elaborated a bit on the challenges of casting a the iconic character.
“Everybody assumes that just because Spock is all about logic, that there is no emotion in there and that’s entirely untrue,” he says. “So, finding an actor who can convey what we know to be very Vulcan, but also reveal so much emotion in the eyes and in the small gestures, so you understand there’s just a tornado of things happening under the surface is critical. So you need an actor who can do both of those things at the same time, which is very challenging.”
In a separate interview, Kurtzman said that Discovery’s Spock would be something different from classic Spock.
“This is not entirely the Spock who has been formed enough to be the Spock that we know from TOS. There’s a lot of story about who Spock was before he becomes the Spock that is the yin-yang to Kirk,” Kurtzman said. “What I’m so excited about is that we have an opportunity to present a version of Spock that’s both totally consistent with the Spock everyone knows but very, very different. And it’s all gonna tie to how we sync up with canon.”
Since Kurtzman and CBS have yet to reveal who this new Spock is, we’ve decided to speculate on who might fill the role. Here are 10 actors who could play Spock on Star Trek: Discovery.
Colin Morgan
Colin Morgan quickly emerged as a fan favorite for the role of Spock in Star Trek: Discovery.
Morgan is best known for playing the wizard Merlin in the BBC television series of the same name. He’s more recently been appearing in AMC’s Humans.
Having played Merlin for five seasons, Morgan knows what it is like to play a distinguished right-hand-man to a heroic lead character. Making the jump from a learned man of magic to a learned Vulcan of science shouldn’t be too much of a jump for the young star, and he has the range to bounce from Spock’s serious logic to dry wit.
Josh Hartnett
Josh Hartnett is a veteran actor whose career has spanned both film and television.
Hartnett’s earlier films include Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, The Faculty, The Virgin Suicides, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, 40 Days and 40 Nights, and Lucky Number Slevin. Some of his later films were The Black Dahlia, Resurrecting the Champ, and I Come with the Rain.
Hartnett has made an impact as a genre actor first with his role in 30 Days of Night, the adaptation of the popular vampire graphic novel series, and then by playing Ethan Chandler from 2014-2016 in Showtime’s hit horror series Penny Dreadful.
Spock would be a challenge for any actor, but Hartnett seems ready for it.
Toby Kebbell
Toby Kebbell is another actor with quite a few significant films under his belt.
Some of those include Dead Man’s Shoes, RocknRolla, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, War Horse, Wrath of the Titans, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four, Warcraft, A Monster Calls, Ben-Hur, Gold, and Kong: Skull Island.
He also had a standout performance in the Black Mirror episode “The Entire History of You.”
What stands out about Kebbell is that he manages to give an emotionally grounded performance no matter the situation he’s in or the character he’s playing, be it the metal-faced Doom in Fantastic Four or in total CGI as a bonobo for Planet of the Apes. That a good trait for someone playing a Vulcan in a show as dazzling as Star Trek: Discovery.
Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes is a British actor who is best known for roles like playing Prince Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and its sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as well as for playing Logan Delos on HBO’s Westworld and for playing Billy Russo, aka Jigsaw, on Marvel’s The Punisher on Netflix.
Some of his other credits include the fantasy film Seventh Son, the 2009 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, The Words, The Big Wedding, and as Samuel Adams in the 2015 miniseries Sons of Liberty.
Really, its Barnes’ Punisher role that makes him most standout as a possible Spock. As Russo, Barnes went between extremes of calculated and emotional, which is what Spock needs.
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy’s credits include 28 Days Later, Cold Mountain, Intermission, Red Eye, and Breakfast on Pluto.
To comic book movie fans, he’s best known as Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, in Batman Begins. He also appeared in The Wind That Shakes Barley, Sunshine, The Edge of Love, Inception, and Peacock. His most recent work includes Transcendence, In the Heart of the Sea, Anthropoid, and Dunkirk, as well as the BBC television series Peaky Blinders.
His time playing Jonathan Crane in The Dark Knight Trilogy stands out as a prime example of why he’d be good as Spock. Sure, Scarecrow is more sinister than Spock, but he showed that same detached demeanor that Spock has at times when looking at things from a scientific and logical perspective.
Tyler Hoechlin
Tyler Hoechlin has appeared in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, and on television series like 7th Heaven, Teen Wolf, and as Superman in The CW’s Supergirl.
Hoechlin may seem like a left-field choice for Spock, but a lot of people thought the same thing when he was chosen to play the Man of Steel on Supergirl.
Now that he’s been in the role, many fans have warmed up to Hoechlin as Superman and been pleasantly surprised by what he’s brought to the role in spite of their initial reservations.
We think Hoechlin is an actor with a wealth of untapped potential who could surprise fans as Mr. Spock in Discovery.
Brandon Routh
The second Superman on our list, Brandon Routh may be busy with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow for The CW but, if he could find time in his schedule, he could make a solid choice for Mr. Spock.
In addition to playing Superman in the 2006 movie Superman Returns, Routh has also appeared in films such as Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and on television series like Gilmore Girls, Chuck, and of course as Ray Palmer, the Atom, on Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.
Routh is known for his easygoing charm, but we think he has what it takes to deliver as the logical Mr. Spock as well.
Wes Bentley
Wes Bentley breakout role was in the 1999 film American Beauty. Since then he’s appeared in The Four Feathers, Ghost Rider, P2, The Hunger Games, Interstellar, Pete’s Dragon, and Mission Impossible – Fallout.
He’s also become a regular returning actor in FX’s American Horror Story anthology series, beginning in 2014 as Edward Mordrake in the Freak Show season. He returned as Detective John Lowe in the Hotel season and as Dylan in the Roanoke season.
Bentley exudes a calm and cool demeanor that he has used to unnerving effect on American Horror Story. Add a touch of curiosity to that performance and he could make a fine Spock.
Richard Harmon
Richard Harmon is a Canadian actor who is best known for playing John Murphy on The CW series The 100.
His other roles include playing Jasper Ames in The Killing and Julian Randol in Continuum. He also appeared in the film If I Had Wings.
Harmon has shown that he’s a great addition to a science fiction series’ cast. He has the look to play a Vulcan, and he seems poised for a breakout role sometime in the near future.
Playing Spock on Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access could very well be that role that propels his career forward.
Zachary Quinto
Okay, so, obviously this one is a bit of a trick answer, but hear us out.
Yes, Alex Kurtzman did say that they have cast a “new” actor as Spock. Technically, Quinto is already Spock, but he would be new to the prime timeline and to Star Trek television.
Moreover, bringing Quinto in as Spock would fall in line with something that former showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts said immediately following the Enterprise’s appearance in the Star Trek: Discovery Season One finale, in which they implied they wouldn’t recast Spock because they felt they couldn’t hope to find anyone as good as Leonard Nimoy or Quinto.
It is possible those plans have changed, or that they were dodging the fact that they would indeed recast Spock, or perhaps they were being clever about the fact that Quinto would reprise the role.
Yes, it is unlikely. Quinto’s contract with Paramount would likely make this a complicated matter, but Alex Kurtzman has worked with both Paramount and CBS on Star Trek. If anyone could navigate those negotiations it’s him.
