The Walking Dead Star Almost Missed Star Trek Role For Filming

The Walking Dead‘s Sonequa Martin-Green almost missed out on her new gig to film her last few episodes on the AMC series.

When Season 7 began, the writing was on the wall for Martin-Green’s Sasha character. When her boyfriend Abraham was killed in the Season 7 premiere, the character had all but lost a will to live outside of the hunger for revenge. Sasha’s death in the Season 7 finale would mean Martin-Green would be out for a new acting job in the aftermath of her Walking Dead role, which would land her on CBS‘s new Star Trek: Discovery series.

The last October and early November shoots for The Walking Dead almost cost her the role on Star Trek: Discovery which was all but waiting for her to begin production.

“At that point, Bryan [Fuller] had also made the transition out [as showrunner], but as the executive producers have beautifully said, everybody felt like it was the best thing,” Martin-Green told DigitalSpy. “And so we hit the ground running,” when she got to the series.

“Now that we’re in production, I’m getting titbits of just how strategic it was,” Martin-Green explained. “At one point, I knew that they had moved on from me because there were some scheduling conflicts with The Walking Dead. But then, when it came back, I realised what had happened. I have been realising more and more just how purposeful it was.”

Joining Star Trek: Discovery was an easy decision for Martin-Green, who stepped into the show’s lead role. “Being able to sit down with him and hear his vision for this iteration was astounding,” she recalled.

“The script was brilliant and I said, ‘Oh! I need to do this. I need to do this.’ That’s how it all came about. Then the opportunity left and came back, which was around December.”

Star Trek: Discovery premieres on CBS and CBS All Access on Sunday, September 24 at 8:30 pm ET.