Rainn Wilson Teases Star Trek Announcement With The Return Of Harry Mudd And Some Familiar Aliens

Yesterday we reported that shooting started for the Star Trek: Short Treks episode featuring the return of Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd. We learned that Rick and Morty writer/producer Mike McMahan had penned the mini-episode, which is being directed by Wilson.

Wilson has previously said his Short Treks episode will be “funny and weird,” and include “alien situations you have never seen before.”  Today Wilson offered us a bit more by tweeting a teaser image with himself as Mudd, flanked on either side by some familiar Star Trek aliens–specifically green-skinned Orions, who also featured prominently in the first season finale.

Wilson’s tweet also included the message: “Guess who’s back!? (Ok, I’ll tell you.) #HarryMudd.”  Cryptically the actor and Short Treks director also added, “Big announcement on Thursday from @StarTrekCBS!”

TrekMovie is trying to confirm the actors playing those two Orions; the actress looks a lot like Janet Varney (You’re The Worst, Stan Against Evil).

Even more Mudd coming to CBS All Access?

Rainn Wilson already played Harry Mudd twice during the first season of Discovery, and his return for Star Trek: Short Treks is not news and was actually revealed in July at San Diego Comic-Con. He also spoke about his Short Treks episode at Star Trek Las Vegas in August, so it isn’t clear what Wilson is referring to when he says there is a “Big announcement” coming this week from CBS.

One likely possibility is that CBS will provide more details on the four Short Treks episodes, including the one with Wilson’s Mudd. So far, CBS has only said that the episodes are coming this fall, one a month. Thursday’s announcement could include the schedule of episodes and more details about them, including synopses. The announcement may also be related to the Star Trek: Discovery New York Comic Con panel set for October 6.

Official logo for Star Trek: Short Treks

It is also possible that CBS has something more up its sleeve. We know that they are developing more Star Trek content for All Access, and just last month CBS TV Studios president David Stapf said: “My goal is that there should be a Star Trek something on all the time on All Access.” In that same interview, it was confirmed that CBS is looking at Discovery characters for potential spin-offs. Specifically, when asked if they are considering a Mudd spin-off, CBS EVP for Original Content Julie McNamara said “He definitely falls in that category of it could be interesting to build around this character. But, I will say, it hasn’t progressed any further than that.”

Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd

Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd in Star Trek: Discovery

Keep checking TrekMovie later this week for the newest information. And keep up with all upcoming Star Trek TV shows here at TrekMovie.com.

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Not interested.. not at all..

But interested enough to comment on it?

And thats make you mad or something?

Its touching that you would think im bothered by this. Im not. I just wondered what was the point of wasting your time reading an article about something you dont care about. But hey, you do you hun xxxx

My god what is this “waste time reading an article” blah blah?? Like seriously why does every commenter on this site feel the need to pounce on others for expressing their opinions? I’m in Camp Athus on this one, I am not at all interested in this Harry Mudd idea. So like why you gotta get all up in people’s faces about stuff for literally no reason? Use some logic man: this kind of baiting makes no sense.

Good for you, mate

Yes sir.

I hope they’re not thinking this character is the ticket to explore the working class aspect of century 23 life. A FIREFLY approach for TREK is something I’ve been an advocate for since TSFS came out (I wanted them to stay renegade), but Mudd is not the way. In the 90s, I thought you could have done a show with Dukat when he took over that BoP, with his crew made up of interesting 24thcen misfits, like Eddington, Barclay, and Yar’s sister

Well, you never know, so much being contingent on the talents of the people involved. I had always regarded “Saul Goodman” as the most cartoonish character on BREAKING BAD, and was thus pretty lukewarm towards the idea of of building an entire series around him. Happily, I was wrong. I’m not crazy so far about DSC’s take on Mudd, but Wilson is undeniably talented, and I like the idea that they went outside the fold to find an ideal writer for the short. We’ll see.

Good example, Michael. Better Call Saul is an excellent show, and being a giant Breaking Bad fan, at first wasn’t I interested in it at all. Three years later, I’m hooked.

Glad you’re enjoying it! In some ways, you could even argue that it’s better than BREAKING BAD. (More heart, less reliant on shocking plot twists.) In any case, it’s a fascinating companion piece.

Speaking as a native Burqueno, I agree! BETTER CALL SAUL topped BREAKING BAD. Love ’em both, though.

Hear hear Michael! Love Saul although I loved him in BB too

I’d definitely like a civilian Star Trek show. The closest I’ve found to what you’re talking about is the fanfilm series Star Trek: Aurora.

http://auroratrek.com

Like an Agents of Shield-type analogue for the Trek universe? I dig it

I would not describe Harry Mudd as one of, say, the top-5 Star Trek villains. Having said that, he is a perfectly reasonable character…for a couple of episodes. An entire series? That smacks entirely of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. CBS should not be “all Trek, all the time.”

A Harry Mudd series would be an insanely great and fun idea. LOVE IT. Fingers crossed. What a great way to explore the Trek universe outside the lens of starfleet.

I’d love to see it. Maybe as a sitcom, half-hour episodes. Time to break the mold on Star Trek, and Rainn Wilson certainly has the chops to do it.

Half hour Star Trek sitcoms? Way to dilute the brand.

AMEN!!! Well said Luke.

I’ve never liked Harry Mudd. Rainn Wilson does a nice job playing him, but I really hope they go into a different direction than a Mudd series.

Mudd sucks in the original series, and the new version was a mild improvement at best. Wilson was fine, but if a full Mudd series were to happen, that’s a thing I would not watch.

I’d be fine with a Mudd one-off mini series but nothing more. I groaned when I first heard Mudd was being featured on Disco but ended up being pleased with the performance and eps. Still, an extended series would be overkill.

To throw more wild speculation out there, maybe it will be a Mudd animated series. Since the Mudd episode was written by McMahon from “Rick and Morty.” And that female Orion does look like Janet Varney, who has done a lot of voice work, including “The Legend of Korra.”

No time would be better for an animated Mudd show than this day and age. Look how much Mudd and Trump have in common. Both are loveable rouges who take what they want and let others pay for it. They have the same attitude towards women and leadership. And Trump has already a cartoon show.

Trump ‘loveable’? If you say so. I’d take Mudd for Pres, though. :-)

As someone who DIDN’T want to see Mudd appear on this show (mostly because I hated the original character) and really opposed it, like hard lol, Wilson’s version won me over. People seem to think I’m stubborn about some of this stuff, but that’s not true. A character I was sure I was going to hate I ended up loving. And I would be open to him showing up once or twice a season now, kind of like Q did and put the DIS crew through the ringer.

And I’m looking forward to his Short Trek. But I do have to agree with others I don’t think I want a full time show or anything. That would feel like overkill. Some characters just work better in small doses. And I really want Star Trek shows to be about Star Trek, exploring strange new worlds and all of that. When you start doing side characters with people like Khan and Mudd, it loses what the message of the show is really about. Again it comes back to why I think Solo bombed. People can love certain characters but not when it draws away from the core of the franchise. A Mudd show would definitely do that IMO.

That said if they announced him in a show I would certainly give it a chance. And I would watch that over a Khan show any day. But Trek should be thinking forward again like they are with Picard show but just my opinion.

I actually do not have a problem with multiple Trek shows that show different facets of the Trek universe. Not EVERYONE is in Star Fleet. There are tons of places they could go. And a 1/2 hour comedy could indeed work if done right. But these things would take greater creative minds than it currently seems CBS is capable of gathering. Time will tell….

I have said in the past I’m open to other ideas as well. It doesn’t have to be Starfleet per se, but these ideas just feel like they are trying to capitalize on fan service instead of doing something original and unique with the franchise. DS9 was doing something different for the sake of being different. We don’t know Mudd is coming but if he is it would just feel like more nostalgia.

That said if it’s good, then it will be worth it if it does happen.

A Mudd series would be the first Trek series I’d refuse to watch.

Love Rainn Wilson and his portrayal of Mudd. Looking forward to more!

No thanks

While I’m glad to see the Orions (and other classic species) on Discovery, it seems the producers have thrown out (or ignored) the intriguing canon species-lore established in Enterprise – namely that the females are hyper-female beings (pheromones, etc) and the males are extremely large, buff, testosterone ridden hyper-hyper male beings. Enterprise established (and TOS) established that it was was the females that were “enslaved” (seemingly, but not really – as they were actually in control). See the Enterprise episodes “Bound” and “Borderland”. Discovery seems to want to show that it’s both genders that are slaves. Sometimes you just gotta make aliens “alien” and an anathema to our own believes.

I didn’t take the Orions in the season finale as being slaves. They were just employees at a brothel.

And did they say all males were super muscular in Enterprise or did they just happen to encounter those types in the two episodes they showed Orion males?

The Orions in Enterprise were cheesy. Just awful. The Orions in Discovery were bland but LA. Why weren’t they wearing leather pants? The thing about Orion women in TOS is that they were a kind of white washed Asian or Eastern eroticism. Perhaps you could do an Orion episode about a POTUS like figure, which Mudd would control. I guess. I do like this version of Mudd as he is pretty much psycho and bipolar.

Do you really think in this day and age they would show female members of a species as hyper sexual beings and men as extremely buff. Have you been living under a rock? We are living in an age where people are offended from the simplest of things, this would have exploded the fandom. Personally I think we should just leave labeling people and try to respect the way everyone wants to live their lives, but these days this seems like a big ask.

Of course I am in tune with modern societal mores. I actually prescribe to gender equality. HOWEVER, what I believe (or we believe as 21st century humans) and how an ALIEN species behaves are two totally different things. Why NOT have aliens that are actually sexist, or bigoted, or just accept ingrained gender differences? They are supposed to be ALIEN, after all. If every alien species is just retroactively altered to reflect OUR norms, then that would be pretty boring. After all, even in TODAY’s human society, there are cultures that don’t share the western view concerning gender, so it’s not a big stretch to think that a society that evolved entirely differently could be this way. Heck, an insect alien species based on ants, bees or spiders would certainly have sexual dimorphism (the way females are often larger and very different than males), and to NOT write this in because of a fear of offending audiences seems rather weak.

Oh, I agree with you 100 percent, I was just trying to say how absurd it is now to bend certain things into agendas and to approach everything from a single point of view. Its just so absurd to get offended at the tiniest of instances.

Nice to see a few positive posts in here.

As for all the negative posts…why does it matter? No one has actually said anything about a Mudd series and even if it does get made…which I one hundred percent support by the way…there’s gonna be other material out there…we’re getting Jean-Luc back for Kahless’ sake!!

There’s plenty of potential for awesome stuff on the way and even if it ends up sucking, there’s no reason to get our panties in a bunch this early on.

I guess because even if its more shows, it still feels like a wasted one or simply one for more fan service.

Star Wars is going to have tons of new material by the time Disney is done and yet people still rolled their eyes at Solo and more prequels. It doesn’t mean everyone of course and I’m sure many loves it but to some it still feel like the franchise is just rolling in nostalgia instead of something unique of its own.

And I admit I’m SUPER excited for Picard so it’s not like I’m immune to it either. I think Mudd just feels like they are doing it because it’s just another known name to market than anything. But you’re completely right no one said one is coming BUT they have said when the Picard show announcement came there are ideas to spin off a character from DIS. And I think its too early in the game it would be a main cast member since they are all completely new. But someone like Mudd its different.

But yes we should wait and see. It may not be anything than an announcement of when the Short Trek date is revealed.

Many of the same people who rolled their eyes at SOLO ended up liking ROGUE ONE, so I don’t think the issue was that it was a prequel per se, but that they just didn’t like the subject matter, particularly as it required that a central character in the STAR WARS universe be recast. I get it that it’s important to you that the Trek franchise “looks forward,” but many of your fellow fans don’t have a problem with prequels so long as the show and stories are good.

For the record I was against Solo and RO and ended up liking them both. Didn’t love either one but RO was good and Solo was OK. Both felt like they were made for fan service but RO did feel like a grittier SW movie and why I enjoyed it.

And yes I think many like prequels but in Star Trek’s case a lot of people are just tired we had them for 15 years now and why some of us are frustrated. But now that the Picard show is coming I’m not as bothered by another prequel, but I still want something original at least. Mudd doesn’t scream that at all and I think why the idea is pretty divided here. At least DIS was a mostly original idea. And you’re right if it’s good then it doesn’t matter all that much.

But as I said if they did it I would give it a chance like I give all Trek shows a chance. It’s STILL Star Trek. ;)

I will give you that Discovery was indeed an original idea. What we heard of it before it went into production sounded pretty positive. (Apart from Burnham being Spock’s adoptive sister which while plausible just sounded like an excuse to bring in Sarek, Amanda and Spock later) With so little originality out there it’s unfortunate the final result was what it was. I like originality but I guess I like something good better.

Yeah just being original doesn’t mean it will be great obviously. I think with DIS though it’s premise is fine, it just needs to be executed better with stronger writing. But I think because we didn’t know the characters was the issue obviously, but it is just easier to market something when you already know and love the characters.

Both the Kelvin films and the Picard show seem to prove that and probably why any new show announcement coming will probably have another known character even if it’s not Mudd.

Sadly, for what CBS was trying to do it was probably better if they used known characters. I’d rather see new ones but given the short seasons and CBS’ need to attract subscribers, the easiest and quickest way was to mine what was already there. Credit them for trying to be original, however. Even though they failed.

A Harry Mudd Series…. lol.

Exactly what a Mudd series would want you to do. I guess that means they’re off to a good start. :-)

I’m all for a Mudd series! Why not? Wilson was awesome in the role and this could be a really fun and unique view of the Star Trek universe. Come on CBS – show the naysayers you can pull this off!

“one a month” I thought it was one a week in December to tide us over till january. Or are they airing once a month starting in December and airing while Discovery is on.

More like one a month starting this month until Discovery is on.

No “Mudd” Spinoff, please.

Mudd is fun but ultimately a dumb choice for a spin off. So much for Star Trek trying to elevate the human spirit!

I have no doubt that Mudd as a character lends himself pretty well to the “Short Treks” concept, but that picture gives me ENT-flashbacks: “Shove in more Orions! Teenage boys love Orions!”

His were among the best episodes from series one so this is good news.

I would actually love a show about what it’s like to not be Starfleet in Star Trek!

This could answer a lot of questions about how the the, “better off,” people in the 23rd century lived, as several mentions of currency were made in TOS. If I have a concern, it’s that Discovery’s Mudd is quite different than the original, and while I’m not a huge fan of the original, I respect that fans don’t want a character completely changed for the sake of drama.

So here’s hoping a Mudd spinoff would be more about subverting Starfleet in order to make a buck, while he changes from violently hostile to a more light-hearted but devious protagonist.

so new the Orion guys are scrawny? What stilly thing to ignore… oh well

I wasn’t much of a fan of this Mudd. I prefer the more comedic take of TOS.

And they totally miscast Stella. If you cast someone way too old to play Mudd, then at least also cast someone way too old to play Stella! Their scene together was icky. The actors of current Mudd and Stella have an age gap of 24 years and both look their age. It looked more like a daughter kissing her father. I totally didn’t get what this young pretty woman saw in this old poor average looking guy. The actors who played the original Mudd and Stella were only three years apart and the actress was actually the older of the two.

Maybe she’s just attracted to his personality…for some reason

The Mudd Show, LOL. I mean, it’d probably be better than Discovery, but here’s a better idea – Rainn Wilson in a Roger C. Carmel biopic.

The Mudd stories get no response from me, but I really really like how Trek news is now flowing at a steady rate and that there are so many tidbits to learn. This is possibly the most exciting time to be a Trek fan since the lead-up to TNG. Seems like in 2020 Trek fans will be the most catered-to geek fandom on the planet. Thank god I got my NYCC ticket for Saturday! Too bad I paid three times the original price for it lol dunno why I forgot to pick it up back in June..

Thanks for the warning!