CBS has released new artwork for Star Trek: Discovery season 3...or have they?

Yesterday, Twitter lit up with news that new key art had been released for Disco season 3. Three new images were shared, claiming to be from CBS, but it wasn’t entirely clear where the images came from, exactly. Now, what appears to be the original tweet showing off the new art has been deleted, and at least one other prominent account’s image attachments appear to have been removed due to a copyright claim. Even Comicbook.com (who are owned by CBS) opted to not share the image directly, although they did write an article on it. So what’s going on?

To be totally clear, I don’t know. I have no way of telling at this point whether the images are legit or not. (I suspect we’ll learn soon enough.) However, I’ve now seen the images shared pretty widely across my feed so it’s probably worth reiterating: before you share, make sure you know the source! I think you know me well enough by now to know I can tend toward skepticism.

But what about those images? The key part of the art is what appears to be the crew of the Discovery, mounting a hill, with Commander Burnham at the lead, holding up a flagpole from which flies a tattered flag of the United Federation of Planets (like the one we have seen in season 3 trailers). From left to right we see: Georgiou, Tilly, Saru, Burnham, new character Book, Stamets, new non-binary character (presumably) Adira, and Doctor Culber. It’s all set against a rocky planet with a beautiful muted palette - all told it’s some pretty beautiful artwork. Shame there’s a chance it might not be real.

And of course, if you know where the images came from, or what the true story is behind the “disappearing Discovery d’artwork” (or whatever), then do me a favor and drop me a tip. Here’s hoping it all gets released officially very soon!