Since he first appeared in season three of Star Trek: Discovery, the mysterious character of Kovich has all of us wondering who he is. Part of the mystique is due to Kovich being played by legendary director David Cronenberg, and now the man himself is talking about the character and where he is headed. So, spoilers below.
Cronenberg on Kovich
Here is how the actor describes the character of Kovich and his relationship to Emperor Georgiou to Variety:
He is an interrogator who’s also kind of an academic historian. He plays his cards pretty close to his vest, as does the Emperor. And as he tries to pry open some secrets from her, she actually is doing the same to him.
Cronenberg resolved the mystery of how he ended up with the role, which ends up to be rather routine. Alex Kurtzman was interested in him and as he considers himself a fan of the original Star Trek, he was “delighted” to do it. Being a Toronto native also made it convenient. But Cronenberg reveals he is still finding his way on this new show…
I hadn’t been following Discovery. And of course, in each case, it’s quite a complex universe with a lot of characters and in fact more than one universe, as it turns out. So I can’t say that I have untangled every possible knot in the show at all. [I’m] concentrating, like a good actor, mainly on my character and his particular role at the moment. Really, it’s a “be here now” kind of thing, because I still haven’t figured everything out.
Kovich will be back
As a filmmaking veteran, Cronenberg finds the Toronto production “very impressive,” but he doesn’t see helming an episode himself, describing it as “a very different kind of directing.” As a film director, he’s involved in every element of post-production, for example, but Discovery has a showrunner who oversees those elements and an experienced team in place. However, Variety reports that as an actor, he will be back in season three and then return in season four, which is currently in production.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery premiere on Thursdays on CBS All Access in the U.S. and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on Crave. Episodes are available on Fridays internationally on Netflix.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
I’m glad he’ll be in season 4.
Same! I love how mysterious he is!
Its so odd that David Cronenberg is in Discovery now…
But hey… I bet it was Kurzman seing Werner Fucking Herzog in Mando and said…. waiiiit a Moment.
These season 3 episodes with Cronenberg would have been filmed in the fall of 2019 and early 2020, and written before that.
Which suggests this plan was well underway before Herzog in SW was a thing.
Also, Herzog reportedly did it for cash to fund his own projects. He’d not known much about the franchise, but liked the scripts.
Cronenberg jokes in the Variety interview that he’s cheap and in Toronto, not to mention he was a fan of TOS.
But hey, it couldn’t possibly be that Kurtzman might have actually seen an opportunity to engage a great Canadian talent who actually just wanted to be there.
It was announced pretty early that Herzog would be Part of Mando.
And if anyone of them did it for the paycheck or not or is a fan or not is totally unimportant for this matter.
He’s one of my favorite things about Season 3 so far. I’m looking forward to the mystery of his role being unraveled. There is a certain Leonard Nimoyesque vibe I get from him when he speaks that I like also!
I have never seen or known David Cronenberg before Discovery. And his character has been quite impressive, captivating. It is already one of my favorites characters from Discovery.
Enjoyed the dialogue between Phillipa and Kovich very much! It actually pulled out the best of Georgiou. I really want to see them together in Section 31. =D
Wait… really? You didn’t know who David Cronenberg was? He’s a highly acclaimed and extremely well-known director
Jay,
My goodness. You are doing yourself a disservice, sir. You don’t know ANY of his movies? To wit:
Scanners
Videodrome
Dead Ringers
The Fly
The Dead Zone(best Stephen King adaptation ever!)
Existenz
Crash
Or the early stuff:
Shivers
The Brood
Rabid
Time to educate yourself. Your welcome.
A history of violence
I stand corrected. That WAS a really good one(Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris in the same flick–can’t go wrong in my book)
What a great film, good call.
Same here. I recognized the game, but I’m not at all familiar with him outside of Trek.
You should definitely check out some of his movies. The best way I can describe them is that they are very unusual. I’d especially recommend Scanners, The Crash, Existenz, The Dead Zone, The Fly and Videodrome.
I’ve heard of him but I seen very few of his films. Maybe 1 or 2? And looking at his work, that genre doesn’t interest me at all. But I never been into gory/horror kinds of stuff in general.
YES!
He’ll be back in season 4, can’t wait!
I’m so relieved that the CBS strategic comms folks that are supporting the streaming series got this interview organized.
I expect that, after Georgiou crossed to the MU, there were a lot of fans like me who were worried that this might be the last we saw of Kovich.
Just great to be able to watch and know that he’ll be back.
That is exaxtly my experience, TG47! Since Cronenberg only had two short scenes this season so far and both tied to Space Hitler, I had reckoned he’d be gone too now that she is being written out of the series, and only desired a limited cameo. It is so good to be proven wrong and seeing his role even expanded in scope and beyond this season!
And in a series largely dominated by youngsters and freshmen, it is also good to have two elder persons of authority on the show now (him and Vance) after Pike had to leave the show last season (and Cornwell did not exactly qualify as “elder”). Beyond the very welcome Israeli and Canadian foray beyond domestic American inside baseball, age diversity is also something Trek should strive for!
He’s got something going on.
I still can’t get over the fact that one of my favorite directors ever has a role in Star Trek. So great.
Cronenberg Trek is something all fans can agree on! :)
I’d still love to see him direct a Star Trek though. Can you guys imagine his take on the Borg? It’d be nightmare fodder but also I would watch the heck out of it.
Uhmmmm.
Parsing carefully what Cronenberg said in this interview, he’s stated only that he wouldn’t direct an episode in an established Star Trek show where his scope of action is very limited.
That is very specific, and Cronenberg is a savvy and experienced interviewee speaking with a top industry media outlet.
He’s not a stream-of-consciousness interviewee like some of the others who’ve been talking about Trek cinematic features, and he’s under a CBS NDA rather than a Paramount one (and there is evidently a difference). So, let’s read between the lines.
That response doesn’t rule out directing a feature film, a made-for-streaming movie, or even a stand-alone Short Trek. It might even encompass being the director of the premiere of a new series where he could establish the creative parameters.
More, Cronenberg specifically said that he had three directing projects in development that he’s been pitching, so he’s unequivocal that still interested in directing projects over which he has creative control. He also implied he’d prefer to work in Toronto at this point.
Kurtzman’s already shown that he’s open to taking risks and Cronenberg is a very credible auteur in science fiction and psychological horror. And unlike Tarantino, Cronenberg has said in this interview that he would need to catch up on the multiverse before wading in as a director, and has made it clear that he wouldn’t just pitch a concept and leave the studio to find others to see it through. His idea of filmmaking is end-to-end.
I somewhat suspect some wheels may already be in motion.
Cronenberg is one of the cinematic heroes. I encourage Dead Ringers on date night – you will find out everything about your prospective partner you need to know. ;)
Yeah, that is one of the rare Cronenberg films I haven’t seen yet. I plan to check it out as soon as I can.
His every line is delivered perfectly, what a major talent he is.
Also, man, what I wouldn’t give to have a head of hear like that!
Watch Naked Lunch, by far his best (My favorite all time and the weirdest movie you will ever see) Crash was great