‘The Mummy’ Director Alex Kurtzman Looks For Redemption Helming ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Premiere

With the massive success of the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot film, and the two subsequent sequels doing decently well at the box office, it seemed like only a matter of time before the franchise would wind up back on television, where the adventures first started. And last year it happened. CBS launched “Star Trek: Discovery” on its All Access online network, and the series went on to be a hit for the fledgling streaming service, quickly earning a second season. Now, it looks like one of those people instrumental in bringing “Star Trek” back to both big and small screens, is going to be a little more hands-on in the upcoming ‘Discovery’ season.

According to Variety, Alex Kurtzman — executive producer and co-creator of the current series “Star Trek: Discovery” — will direct the season 2 premiere. The episode is set to begin filming in April, though no premiere date has yet been announced. In addition to his involvement with this latest show, Kurtzman served as writer and producer of 2009’s “Star Trek” and 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness,” both of which were directed by his frequent collaborator J.J. Abrams.

While “Star Trek: Discovery” has turned out to be divisive among viewers, many have considered it a fresh reinvention of classic elements of the franchise, one designed to please newer fans as well as longtime “Star Trek” devotees. Set a decade before the original series (and, yes, in the same timeline), “Star Trek: Discovery” ended its first season with the titular ship’s crew poised to come face to face with the USS Enterprise. Granted, this is before Captain Kirk assumed command, but nevertheless, the promise for the show to collide with pre-existing canon has never been stronger.

The upcoming season premiere marks the closest “Star Trek: Discovery” has come to an event episode. But for Kurtzman, it offers not only the chance to put his stamp on the franchise in a way he never has before but also perhaps to reclaim his directorial pride. After all, his previous effort was helming last summer’s Tom Cruise vehicle “The Mummy.” Despite its intentions of kickstarting Universal’s Dark Universe, the film’s critical drubbing and disastrous box office performance put an immediate halt to plans to re-introduce the studio’s classic monsters. Needless to say, Kurtzman is looking to put that behind him and start fresh.

“Star Trek: Discovery” is a different beast though, one with which Kurtzman has been intimately involved from the beginning. It stands to reason that the filmmaker would be the ideal choice to kickstart this new season. With him leading the charge, and setting the tone for this new batch of episodes, “Star Trek: Discovery” could be poised to finally silence the show’s biggest (and most vocal) critics, justifying its own existence as the sole anchor of CBS’s streaming service.