Star Trek: Discovery Showrunner Announces Female Lead, Confirms LGBT Character

Hold on, Trekkies--we're going back to where no man has gone before.

Star Trek: Discovery, the highly anticipated TV series from out screenwriter Bryan Fuller, will feature a female lead character and an LGBT character, the showrunner confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

A female character has not been the central character of a Star Trek movie or TV series since Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was stranded in the Delta Quadrant during Star Trek: Voyager.

Fuller, who worked on episodes of Voyager, said that Discovery's female lead will be a lieutenant commander instead of a captain--"a character who is on a journey that is going to teach her how to get along with others in the galaxy."

The series will take place in the "Prime universe"--outside the alternate universe created by J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie reboots--and will introduce an original gay character as one of the male leads, Fuller said.

Star Trek: Beyond featured Hikara Sulu (John Chu) as openly gay as an homage to gay actor and activist George Takei. While honored, Takei called for an original LGBT character in the universe.

Looks like Fuller has been monitoring the frequencies out there.