OCTOBER 21, 2020 - One of the biggest stars of the new season of Star Trek: Discovery is Grudge the cat. She’s a brown Maine Coon, and is the faithful companion to fellow newcomer Book, played by David Ajala. Despite having no speaking lines in the series so far, she’s clearly made a splash with fans: her official Twitter account already has over 5,000 followers.

Grudge’s newfound fame has led two Discovery producers to (separately) answer questions about what she’s like behind the scenes, and in fact, what her character was based on.

Discovery co-showrunner Michelle Paradise was first, speaking to TVLine last week. She confirmed that “Grudge is an absolute hit. [...] Everyone, of course, wants to be on set on the days when we’re shooting the cat.”

Paradise also clarified that Grudge, whose character is female but who is played by a pair of male cats, will appear throughout the series, but it’s not all about her. “Grudge is Book’s first lady love, and we will be seeing a fair amount of Grudge this season,” she said. “We won’t overplay Grudge, but Grudge is an important part of Book’s life, and is with him on his ship. We will be seeing Grudge again.”

Executive Producer Jenny Lumet also had some words about Grudge, which she revealed in a video on StarTrek.com and Comicbook.com helpfully summarized. Lumet explained that she’s responsible for inventing the character, and that Grudge is based on a real-life pet: Her grandmother’s dog. “This cat was actually based on a dog, a Pekinese dog that lived in a sleeve of my grandmother Lena Horne’s kimono whose name was Nelly,” she said. “For years I just thought Nelly was dead because she never did anything.”

Lumet also explained a little more about what we might get to see from Grudge in the future. “Grudge has a whole backstory,” she said. “She has a best friend. She’s a really, really unpleasant cat and she makes things really miserable [...] So I’m excited about Grudge wreaking her havoc and behaving very badly in space a thousand years from now.”

Watch Grudge in her debut in the Star Trek: Discovery season 3 premiere, now streaming on CBS All Access.