Well This Stinks: Bryan Fuller Steps Down as Star Trek: Discovery Showrunner

Jill Pantozzi | October 26th, 2016

Breaking news tonight that Bryan Fuller has decided to step down as showrunner on CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery. This is definitely a bummer.

Variety has the scoop:

The decision was made late last week to hand the day-to-day showrunning reins to “Star Trek” exec producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts as “Discovery” gears up for the start of filming next month and a May premiere date. Fuller, who will remain an executive producer, will still be involved in breaking stories, and the show will continue to follow his vision for the universe that this latest “Trek” series will inhabit. Writer-director Akiva Goldsman is also expected to join “Discovery” in a top creative role. He’s envisioned as serving as producing support for Berg and Harberts, Fuller and exec producer Alex Kurtzman as they juggle the demands of the series that CBS is counting on to be the marquee selling point for subscriptions to its CBS All Access SVOD service.

Variety goes further to cite “sources” who told them there was strain between CBS Television Studios and Fuller over the show’s progress. You may recall Fuller is also currently working Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods as well as a reboot of Amazing Stories at NBC.

They note that Fuller has written at least the first two scripts for the new Trek series and worked on the first season’s broader arc and mythology and add “There’s also some internal stress at the studio that the lead character, described by Fuller as a female lieutenant commander, has yet to be cast.”

I’ve written about the long wait we’ve had for a cast but didn’t think it would come to this kind of change up so late in the game. Hopefully they’ll still be going the progressive route Fuller had discussed.

“Sources emphasized that CBS execs have been happy with the material that Fuller has developed to date but became increasingly concerned that he had too much on his plate and there was no willingness to delay the premiere date once more,” wrote Variety.