Since joining Star Trek: Discovery as a recurring character in season two, Tig Notaro’s acerbic engineer Jett Reno has become a fan favorite. She has previously been confirmed to be returning for season four and now we have a bit more detail on when and how Notaro will be part of Discovery again.
Reno arriving “very soon”
Tig Notaro appeared in five episodes each of seasons two and three of Star Trek: Discovery, but due to health concerns she chose to limit her shooting time during the pandemic. While production on season 4 began in November 2020, Notaro didn’t arrive on set until May 2021 and was there for just two weeks. Usually that would just be enough for a single episode, but as she explained at the time, she would be shooting more than one: “It’s all going to be crammed in two weeks.”
So far there have been no scenes with Reno in the first three episodes, and no indication she’s in episode four (which arrives on Thursday) based on the previews. However, in a new interview with Forbes, co-showrunner Michelle Paradise promises we won’t have long to wait for more Reno:
You’ll see her very soon. Tig is so awesome on this show. We love her. I mean, we would have her all the time if we could get her all the time. But you know, she’s so busy and doing awesome other things. And so we grab her when we can. So we don’t have her as much as some of our other characters. But she’ll be coming up soon within the first half of the season, for sure.
We have gotten a couple of glimpses of Notaro as Reno in season four promos. She appeared for a moment in the NYCC trailer saying, “Oh well, I’ve lived a good life.”
Tig Notaro as Jett Reno in season 4
Paradise talked about how they accommodated Notaro by shooting scenes from multiple episodes at the same time:
Yeah, that’s something that we do with her every season, because her time is so limited. What we’ll do is basically clump her work together so that she’s able to come in and then do a few episodes at a time and then go off and do her other things, just because having her come back and forth, her schedule is very, very jammed. So we try to make it as easy as possible to get her as much as we can.
We also got a glimpse of Notaro as Reno in a new online promo released yesterday.
Tig Notaro in season four of Discovery
More Reno and Stamets
Having Tig film scenes that can be inserted into previously filmed content is something she is getting known for. The actress was brought in to replace a character in the Netflix zombie movie Army of the Dead, shooting all of her scenes after main production had wrapped. Discovery is different, as she isn’t performing in front of a greenscreen and being inserted into previous filmed scenes, which means we will still get to see some of the chemistry she has with some of the other actors, like the fun dynamic between Jett Reno and Paul Stamets in previous seasons.
During a pre-season four Discovery junket (via Decider), Anthony Rapp confirmed he shot scenes with Notaro, but added, “Not quite as much as I’d love… It’s always a total pleasure to spend time with Tig. She’s just a genius person.” During the same group interview, Wilson Cruz said “She’s in it a lot. In the little time that we had, they really put her to work.” And Blu del Barrio said that Reno and Adira “got a little thing” to do as well, adding, “It was great.”
Tig Notaro as Jett Reno and Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets in “Die Trying”
Find more Star Trek: Discovery at TrekMovie.com.
Looking forward to seeing her again. :)
To me, Tig Notaro as Jett Reno is one of the very best things about this show. I just love her character!
Absolutely. She’s DISCOVERY’s answer to Guinan or Garak — a recurring character that absolutely makes the show.
I suppose. Never thought of her in that way. I wish she would get another dedicated solo episode(last one was with her introductory episode)
Glad she is back. She is always in the good episodes .
I just assumed that starfleet had given her a ship of her own based on how awesome she is
That would be a good way to write her out…if need be. However, if need be nonexistent…
Good to hear. Her appearances have been a godsend to that otherwise drab show. Wish she was more available to them but I guess we ought to be happy with what we get. Always better to have people wanting more than wanting less.
Can I get a job on this show too? I can play myself quite easily.
LOL! Me too.
The way they talk about Tig in this role you’d think she was a vital part of the Disco mythos and story. As fun as Jett’a character is she dips in, says something sarcastic, and then we don’t see her for a few episodes. I’d rather see Owo or Detmer properly developed
Or Bryce or Rhys, weird that the characters they ignore are actually the more interesting ones.
In what universe are Bryce and Rhys interesting? They’re cardboard cutouts who glance around the bridge a lot.
The thing with her is that she seemed to be a character with edges right from the start while the bridge crew members simply don’t show any character traits (with one or two exceptions for Detmer). I suppose on my wish list is Reno with an actual story on her own that shows a different side, maybe a softer side where she takes on a truly sympathetic part, just to give her more dimensions.
I’d be curious to see a well rounded storyline with her too Q-less. One with less snarky comments
She’s vital to the show in that most scenes she is in she breathes LIFE into everything. When she’s gone it’s a noticeable downer.
Now maybe if she was around a lot we might get tired of her but at this point I think Star Trek Discovery needs to take that chance. I mean it’s hard for the show to get worse and having her around more I think would be a good gamble.
They say she has a lot of other stuff on her plate so it would most likely take more $$$ than P+ wants to give, too.
It must be nice to have this kind of job security! I mean it sounds like she can just show up whenever she wants and they will accommodate her in any way. IIRC she actually said in an interview her character will never die. Not that I want her to, I really like her character too, it’s just odd someone has so much clout over a character that’s only in a few episodes every season.
She’s probably not getting paid a lot just showing up in a few scenes every few episodes, but still enough for most people.
She’s ok. I definitely like her character more than I thought I would considering how unfunny Tig Notaro typically is.
Tig Notaro is hilarious.
When Notaro was cast in Discovery, I watched one of her stand-up acts on YouTube and thought she was really boring. It was a wonderful surprise to see how interesting and fun she is in Discovery.
I mention this because I think you’ll take a lot of flak for saying that Notaro is unfunny, so I wanted to say that I also experienced what little I’ve seen of her non-Discovery work to be unfunny.
I haven’t seen her stand up but she sure is amusing on Star Trek Discovery. That doesn’t necessarily transfer to stand up, obviously. Just like someone who’s a good stand up doesn’t necessarily transfer to comedy acting well.
It will be great to see Jett Reno back on board the Discovery. I hope Stamets and her get to banter and argue in engineering.
I also hope Tig is feeling good and she will be able to travel back and forth to Toronto when (and if) production begins for S5. To respond to Tiger2 about the desire to keep Notaro on the show, I think she brings with her a non-Trek audience to the show. People I know who have never watched a minute of Star Trek, have asked me when she will appear on the show because they want to watch. That is obviously worth a lot and helps explain why they want to accomodate her schedule.
But what about Linus?! I want more Linus. Do an episode on him and where his species are in this timeframe.
Yeah. Weird we haven’t seen him yet. He was the breakout star of last season for me. He has a lot of potential.
He was,very briefly,in the background in the first episode. Blink and you’ll miss him moment,lol
I strongly support the call for more Linus and might add that Nhan would also be a welcomed return for me.
I’d rather see more of Linus too. The sneezing gag was kind of cringy, but he’s an amusing character.
I don’t know if the actor’s availability may be a limiting factor too (as it is for Tig Notaro), but the make-up and VFX definitely are. Since they gave his species CGI eye lids it costs extra whenever he’s on screen.
Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer
Well yeah they need her to provide comic relief now that
We’ll have to see how permanent that is. If I remember correctly the producers also said before season 4 started that Saru would spend extended time on Kaminar and, at least speaking for myself, I was surprised how quickly he returned.