Bryan Fuller Boards CBS’s New Star Trek Series

Veteran Star Trek writer and producer Bryan Fuller will help to steer the franchise’s highly anticipated return to television.

CBS announced today that Fuller has been tapped to serve as co-creator and executive producer for the new Star Trek series, which will premiere in early 2017 on the network’s CBS All Access digital service (along with a CBS network broadcast event for the first episode). In addition to joining Alex Kurtzman in those duties, Fuller will also be the showrunner.

A life-long Star Trek fan, Fuller got his start writing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager, with 17 story and teleplay credits to his name including “Empok Nor,” “Dark Frontier,” “Bride of Chaotica!,” “Flesh and Blood,” “Fury,” and more.

From there he went on to create (or co-create) Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and Hannibal. His High Moon pilot for Syfy Channel aired as a TV movie but did not go to series. Fuller also served as a writer-producer for Heroes.

He is currently attached to Starz’s American Gods, created with Michael Green and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.

“My very first experience of Star Trek is my oldest brother turning off all the lights in the house and flying his model of a D7 Class Klingon Battle Cruiser through the darkened halls,” Fuller recalled. “Before seeing a frame of the television series, the Star Trek universe lit my imagination on fire. It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand-new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.”

“Bringing Star Trek back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan’s devoted care,” Kurtzman said. “His encyclopedic knowledge of Trek canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic future, a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds.”

The plan for the new show is “to introduce new characters and civilizations, existing outside of the mythology charted by previous series and the current movie franchises,” according to Variety.

“For the past 50 years, Star Trek has been a groundbreaking franchise that not only changed the landscape of television, but made a significant impact on pop culture,” CBS Television Studios President David Stapf said. “When we began discussions about the series returning to television, we immediately knew that Bryan Fuller would be the ideal person to work alongside Alex Kurtzman to create a fresh and authentic take on this classic and timeless series. Bryan is not only an extremely gifted writer, but a genuine fan of Star Trek. Having someone at the helm with his gravitas who also understands and appreciates the significance of the franchise and the worldwide fan base was essential to us.”

The new Star Trek series (yet unnamed) will be the first original series for CBS All Access, which is available by subscription. It will also be distributed internationally for television and multiple platforms by CBS Studios International.