Star Trek: Discovery’s Doug Jones on Saru’s future, and collecting figures of his characters

Doug Jones as Saru in Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery’s Doug Jones, who plays Saru on the series, has given an new interview in which he spoke a little bit about what’s to come in season three. In a piece from Trek Report, Jones wasn’t able to say much about the upcoming plot, but he did talk about a step change in technology, as well as his hopes for his character, going forward.

When we last saw the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery, they were heading into a wormhole, using the Red Angel suit to jump far into the future, at the end of season two. Since then, we’ve had a teaser trailer and very little else to give us hints of what’s to come. We do know that they’ve gone forward about 1,000 years, and that the Federation appears to be in trouble. “There are so many unanswered questions about what’s ahead,” Jones told Trek Report. He then likened the Discovery arriving in the future to what it would be like driving a Ford Model T on the road today.

Talk later turned to Jones’ hopes for Saru. “I love Saru’s respect and longing for family,” he said. “He so dearly misses his own family from Kaminar, so it only makes sense that he takes such care in building a chosen family on the starship Discovery. [...] I would love to see Saru able to build a family of sorts that he can retreat to and call home.”

Aside from the usual discussion of upcoming content, the Trek Report piece also had Jones revealing something new: that he collects figures of himself! According to the piece: “Jones has every single toy that he’s ever been. Meaning, he’s always made sure that if he appears as a character, which becomes a toy, he gets one of them. This is something he’s done since the early days of his career, starting with his role in a McDonald’s campaign.”

In the late 1980s, Jones was cast as crooner with a moon for a head, who some of you might remember as Mac Tonight. Jones said when he first saw his own likeness turn up as a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy, he “got the boyish giggles”.

Jones also has the distinction of having a whopping 10 Funko Pop! vinyl figures in his image, including, of course, Saru, as well as the Gentleman from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four film, Hellboy’s Abe Sapien, and the amphibian man from the Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water. Jones says, “Yes, I own all of them, and they are treasures to me.”

While we’re waiting for Discovery season three to come out, hopefully later this year, you can catch up on seasons one and two, streaming now on CBS All Access.