Those who jumped into CBS All Access to follow the rest of Star Trek: Discovery should savor each of those episodes as they come, since even if Season 2 does end up happening, it probably won't happen for awhile. Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman shared his tentative date for a potential second season, and suffice to say, it's a significant stardate away. In his words:
Ideally, on the early side of 2019.
Damn...or as the Klingon's say, Ghuy'. Alex Kurtzman could possibly disappoint a ton of Star Trek fans in taking so long with Star Trek: Discovery, but ultimately, he's shooting for a later date to ensure Season 2 wouldn't suffer the same mistakes made with Season 1 involving early announcements. As those who have following the project may already know, Star Trek: Discovery had a lot of perceived delays on the way to its premiere, but that probably wouldn't have been the case had the marketing push not settled on a premiere date so early in the production. And now that Kurtzman knows what a massive undertaking this show can be, he's making sure to lock down a completely vague span of time that's appropriate for both CBS and the needs of the show, provided the network gives the green light.
Which is to say early 2019 is not even a concrete date, as some may overlook the "ideally" tagged onto the front of that statement, since it's probably still too early to tell if CBS will confidently move forward with another season. While Alex Kurtzman undoubtedly has a better grasp of what to expect if/when production begins for Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, other things could pop up that delay the show further, or some that might even speed things along. The way Kurtzman put it to THR, the main thing he's concerned about is not feeling the need to speed along, in order to create the highest quality Star Trek show possible:
There have been preliminary conversations about when and how [a second season could air] and we've been very consistent in our message, which is that rather than announce a date and have to push again, let's take into consideration everything we've learned from this season. Now we know what we can do and where the sand traps are, so let's give ourselves ample time to announce a date that makes sense to everybody --- both the needs of production and CBS. Breaking story is, in some ways, the easier and faster thing; it's the ability to execute on it that's much harder. We want to take the right amount of time and don't want to rush.
Alex Kurtzman does acknowledge, however, that their initial announcement for Star Trek: Discovery's release did push the crew to deliver a product they felt was top quality to fans, and they were somewhat guided by the motivation not to disappoint everyone after it became apparent the show wouldn't hit its targeted release dates. The jury is still out on whether the crew succeeded in that mission, but whether they did or didn't, the pressure to perform is presumably going to be slightly lessened if the team gets another season of stories to tell.
Star Trek: Discovery is currently airing on CBS All Access. For more information on the service, be sure to check out Cinemablend's show The Cord Cutter Podcast for a detailed breakdown on the service and whether or not it's worth picking up. For a look at upcoming fall programming, visit our fall premiere guide.
