Star Trek: Rainn Wilson Teases Harry Mudd's Return, Big Announcement This Week

Rainn Wilson is returning to the Star Trek universe as Harry Mudd.

On Sunday, Wilson shared a photo of himself in costume as the scoundrel Harry Mudd hanging out on set with a couple of Orions.

Take a look below.

Guess who’s back!? (Ok, I’ll tell you.) #HarryMudd Big announcement on Thursday from @StarTrekCBS! pic.twitter.com/snqpAfxE3o

— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) September 16, 2018

Wilson also teased that a big announcement is coming on Thursday from CBS, so Star Trek fans should keep their eyes and ears open.

Wilson played Mudd in two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery's first season. He was introduced in the episode "Choose Your Pain." After Captain Lorca left Mudd behind on a Klingon prison ship, Mudd returned in the episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" to seek revenge.

Mudd was already confirmed to return in Star Trek: Short Treks, the upcoming CBS All Access micro-series of short films, each one focusing on a different Star Trek: Discovery character. Wilson will direct and star in the Harry Mudd episode.

Star Trek: Short Treks is still without a premiere date, though it was teased for a fall release ahead of Star Trek: Discovery's return in early 2019. Perhaps the big announcement on Thursday will be that premiere date, with the Harry Mudd episode coming first.

Then again, maybe Wilson is teasing his return to Star Trek: Discovery itself. Or perhaps even bigger, Wilson has said that he'd like to see Mudd get his own spinoff series, something that the CBS All Access executives did not rule out. With the Star Trek franchise in a period of expansions, nothing is out of the question.

"I think what you are asking is are we incubating things potentially, and the answer is yes and no," said CBS TV Studios president David Stapf. "There's not a grand design of 'lets plant a Rainn idea and see how that does.' It's more Secret Hideout and the rest of the Trek brain trust coming to us and saying, 'we think this would be really cool, storywise, characterwise.'"

Are you excited for Rainn Wilson's return as Harry Mudd? Let us know in the comments!

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the U.S., through CraveTV in Canada and through Netflix in other international markets.

Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto and will premiere in early 2019.