Walking Dead Actress Sonequa Martin-Green Cast as Star Trek: Discovery's Lead

The Walking Dead actress Sonequa Martin-Green is about to go from a terrifying landscape to a bold new world. Per an EW report, Martin-Green has been cast as the lead of Star Trek: Discovery, CBS's new Star Trek series. Martin-Green will be the first African-American female to play the lead on a Star Trek television series.

Although her character is currently unnamed, Martin-Green will play a lieutenant-commander "with caveats" as opposed to the captain of a starship. In a previous interview with EW, Star Trek: Discovery's former showrunner Bryan Fuller noted that they wanted a series that brought a different perspective to the Star Trek mythos, with different relationships than a captain has with their crew.

Martin-Green joins an already diverse cast that includes Doug Jones (Hellboy) as an alien Science Officer, Michelle Yeoh as the Starship Shenzhou's captain and Martin-Green's superior officer, and Anthony Rapp as the Star Trek television franchise's first openly gay character.

Chris Obi, Shazad Latif, and Mary Chieffo have also been cast as Klingons for the show.

CBS air will air the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery on television in May and then release subsequent episodes on its new All Access streaming service.