Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner McMahan to comedian Tompkins: "Consider yourself an alien!"
The crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek: Lower Decks season one isn’t even out yet, but season two is already in the works. And after a Twitter exchange over the weekend, it appears as though it might be getting a well-known voice as a new “shady alien”.
So how did the news come out? On Saturday, Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome retweeted TrekCore.com, who were pointing out Michael Burnham’s upcoming new look in Discovery season three. Newsome said, “This is small but also huge. Box braids in Trek! I love us.” Then Andy Fark, the drummer for the Star Trek-themed band Five Year Mission, replied to Newsome asking what the odds were that comedian Paul F. Tompkins could voice a “shady alien” on Lower Decks. (Newsome and Tompkins have worked together frequently on Tompkins’ improv comedy podcast, Spontaneanation.)
This is small but also huge. Box braids in Trek! I love us. 😭🖖🏾🖤 https://t.co/QYmLwLyLbW
— Tawny Newsome (@TrondyNewman) June 7, 2020
Long story short, both Tompkins and McMahan saw the tweet and indicated they’d be interested. Finally, McMahan replied to Tompkins, “Haha well consider yourself an alien! I’ll have our casting folks resch [sic] out for the season 2 eps we’re working on right now. Thanks, @andyfark!”
Haha well consider yourself an alien! I’ll have our casting folks resch out for the season 2 eps we’re working on right now. Thanks, @andyfark!
— Mike McMahan (@MikeMcMahanTM) June 7, 2020
While you’re waiting for both Discovery season three and Lower Decks season one, you can catch up on old episodes of Star Trek on CBS All Access.
Editor’s note: Readers helpfully pointed out that Star Trek: Lower Decks was originally commissioned for two seasons, so we have updated this article and headline. The original version indicated that it was a slip by showrunner McMahan to indicate that season two was coming. It was an omission on our part and we apologize for the error. For more information, you may wish to refer to TrekMovie.com’s article when the show was first commissioned, back in 2018.
