As Shazad Latif's Nautilus officially arrives 20,000 leagues below the 2025 TV schedule on AMC and AMC+, Star Trek: Discovery fans will get a chance to see the actor finally be a captain. Unfortunately, the odds don't appear stacked in favor of him showing up in any upcoming Trek series, but that's not to say offers weren't on the table. The actor confirmed to CinemaBlend that he was approached about Ash Tyler returning, which is reassuring, but explained why that return didn't happen (yet).
Before Star Trek: Section 31 was a straight-to-streaming movie available with a Paramount+ subscription, there were grander plans in store. The feature was originally conceived as an episodic series, and there was a point at which Shazad Latif's Ash Tyler was primed to be one of its stars. Plans changed, however, and when I asked the actor about Tyler returning, he mentioned Nautilus and other projects ended up getting in the way of his potential return:
He's somewhere in section 31 doing his thing. It was just the whole timing thing. It just didn't work out, yeah. But I miss that crew. I miss that. But yeah, I went to the ocean, so I'll be somewhere else.
It's interesting to hear that Star Trek's powers that be did indeed approach Shazad Latif about returning as Ash Tyler, as we'd heard confirmation in early 2024 that he wasn't attached to Section 31 anymore. One might imagine the Michelle Yeoh-starring movie would've been entirely different had Ash Tyler been involved, given that Georgiou returned to a later era in the finished product.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but I'd wonder if Shazad Latif was relieved he spent that time filming Nautilus' submarine scenes in a water tank rather than appearing in the critically panned Star Trek: Section 31. Of course, the movie might've fared better with his involvement, as he would've added another link to Discovery in a movie that seemed to distance itself from it as much as possible.
But as the actor explained, the request came at a time when he was already busy with other things. As he put it:
I think I was already filming stuff and I think just the timing of everything, it's just just scheduling stuff, yeah.
If Shazad Latif was truly interested in returning to Star Trek, there is an avenue for him to do so. Strange New Worlds, which recently announced it will end with Season 5, takes place in the same timeline as when Ash was first introduced in Discovery.
When we last saw the character, Ash had accepted a position at the head of Section 31 in Starfleet. As a Klingon who radically transformed his body and mind to appear and become human, there were definite struggles with him having to acclimate to either society once he fully became aware of his two selves. Section 31, however, saw great benefit in his unique experience and brought him on willingly. It would be great for Strange New Worlds to bring him back for an episode, assuming it doesn't need too many episodes to wrap up its own storylines.
We don't know when or if we'll ever see Shazad Latif in Star Trek again, but he is on AMC's Nautilus, which airs on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET. It's worth a watch for anyone looking for a new adventure series to get through these summer months.
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