Alex Kurtzman to Direct ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2 Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

“Star Trek: Discovery” executive producer Alex Kurtzman will take the helm for the sci-fi drama’s season-two premiere.

Kurtzman is set to direct the debut episode of the new season, which is slated to begin production in April in Toronto. No air date has yet been scheduled for the premiere.

Season two will pick up where the season-one finale left off. After bringing the Federation-Klingon war to a non-violent conclusion, the crew of the USS Discovery sets off from Earth to Vulcan, but — spoiler alert — stops along the way to answer a distress call from the USS Enterprise. The finale’s closing shot sets up a likely meeting between the Discovery’s Cmdr. Michael Burnham and Capt. Christopher Pike, who commanded the Enterprise prior to the tenure of James T. Kirk.

Speaking to Variety in February, after the finale aired, Kurtzman said that season two would address fan questions about the relationship between Burnham and the original “Star Trek” series’ Spock, who were raised together, according to backstory revealed in “Discovery” season one.

“I think with Enterprise’s arrival in the finale we recognize that the audience has a lot of questions about our synchronicity with the original series, which really means or synchronicity with canon,” Kurtzman said. “So the promise of the Enterprise holds the answers to a lot of those questions, including Spock’s relationship with his half-sister who he’s never mentioned. Which does not necessarily mean you’re going to see Spock, just that we owe an answer to that question.”

Kurtzman co-created “Discovery” with Bryan Fuller and played an active role in season one, working with showrunners and fellow exec producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts.

Through his company Secret Hideout, Kurtzman is in an overall deal with CBS Television Studios, which produces “Star Trek: Discovery” for streaming service CBS All Access. He is also an exec producer on CBS’ “Instinct,” “Scorpion,” and “Hawaii Five-0,” as well as upcoming event series “Salvation.” He co-wrote the feature films “Star Trek,” “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” “The Amazing Spider Man 2,” “Transformers” and “Mission: Impossible III,” and directed films “The Mummy” and “People Like Us.”

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