New Details Confirm that Bryan Fuller was 'Pushed Out' as Showrunner for STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
A red flag went up for Star Trek fans everywhere when Bryan Fuller left Star Trek: Discovery behind. His departure was rumored to be because of scheduling, but new reports suggest Fuller was actually “pushed out," with scripts coming in months behind schedule.
Before his grand exodus, Discovery was delayed two times, and the showrunner Fuller was very busy with his work with Starz’s American Gods and and NBC’s Amazing Stories and seemed to take priority for him.
Variety reports that Discovery’s break with Fuller was not so clean as initially reported:
The official line is that Fuller departed via a mutual and amicable decision to focus on his other project, Starz’s ‘American Gods.’ He is still listed as co-creator of ‘Discovery’ alongside executive producer Alex Kurtzman, who speaks glowingly of him. He shares a story credit with Kurtzman on the premiere, as well as a screenplay credit with another exec producer, Akiva Goldsman. CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves calls him ‘brilliant.’
But sources close to Fuller and within CBS say that he was pushed out. Fuller is known as an innovative showrunner and the creator of critically adored television such as ‘Hannibal.’ He is not known as someone who prioritizes deadlines and budgets above all else. In short: He is not a typical CBS showrunner. (Fuller declined to comment.)
Variety's report also noted that Fuller “failed to deliver scripts months after they were due,” and even thought this really irritated CBS boss Les Moonves, he was accepting of the post-January premiere he previously announced. In addition to missing script deadlines, it was also rumored that Fuller didn't get along very well with the pilot's director David Semel. Discovery's star Michelle Yeoh said:
‘It was like shooting a movie, the scale of it,’ Yeoh says of making the pilot, which was directed by David Semel, who clashed with Fuller. ‘It wasn’t just ‘Quick, let’s get the shot. Move, move.’’
As troubled as the process has been, come September 24 we will all find out if all this drama was worth it, but will we ever experience what Fuller might have brought to a new vision of Star Trek?