Klingons We’ve Seen

Star Trek Las Vegas (STLV) is on today and for the next week and some of the crew of Star Trek Discovery were on a panel. That panel, entitled “Introducing the Discovery Cast”, revealed some long-awaited details pertaining to the Klingons.

When leaked photos of the Klingons of Discovery found their way onto the Internet earlier this year, there was an immediate fan uproar over the unconventional look of that species. Many fans felt that it diverged too much from the Klingons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Original Series shows.

More recently, series showrunners have stated emphatically that the new show is canon and that it exists within the Prime universe (the latest three Star Trek movies diverged into what is known as the Kelvin universe). That means that everything that happened in all the tv show, all 750+ episodes, is canon and that Discovery must fit within it all. Fans wondered how it could be both canon and have Klingons that appeared so different.

Mitchell and Chieffo Reveal

Today, we may have gotten our answer. During the panel, Kenneth Mitchell, who plays a Klingon named Kol in the new series, stated “the images that you have seen so far are from one house.” Mitchell is referring to images of Klingons posted online recently, and the Klingons in the two trailers for the show. “So even in the costumes/wardrobe, you’re seeing it starting to venture towards more traditional Klingons — leather, different set of armor. The series will explore 24 houses of Klingon. You’re going to start to explore further Klingons and each of those houses have a different set of physical looks and variations and ideologies.”

This would could explain why Discovery‘s Klingons look so different than in any other Star Trek series. It’s possible the show may still show the Klingons we’re used to seeing throughout the series.

May Chieffo, who plays a Klingon named L’Rell, who was also on the panel says “there’s a whole reasoning behind it. The exploration of houses is really fun. You get an exploration of the two houses I’m from.. I really deeply believe we are in line with what has come before but also a new kind of nuance.”

Star Trek Discovery airs this September on CBS All Access in the USA, CraveTV/Space in Canada, and on Netflix for the rest of the world.