This morning at Vulture Fest in New York City there was a Star Trek: Discovery panel titled “The Future is Definitely Female,” featuring co-showrunner Gretchen J. Berg along with actresses Sonequa Martin-Green, Michelle Yeoh, Mary Chieffo and Mary Wiseman. TrekMovie was there and we will have a full report on the panel tomorrow, but today start with some of Berg’s comments about the second season, canon and future of the show.

Season 2 clues in season 1 finale + more character devlopment

Executive producer and co-showrunner Gretchen J. Berg didn’t want to give any spoilers for Discovery’s second season, currently in production, but hinted about the direction of the show:

I don’t want to spoil, but I think there are clues. It takes too many months to figure out how to do this. Their beautiful performances are crafted, then they are in post, so I am not going to tell you everything right now. We leave clues. Watch the final episode at the end of the [first] season as to where we are going. I can promise you that the characters that you fall in love with, you are going to get to know them better. We get much deeper into character exploration this year and we will meet some new folks. We love our group and you are going to learn more about them.

Discovery‘s loose ends will be tied up into canon

When discussing the setting of Star Trek: Discovery, Gretchen J. Berg reiterated how important it is for the creators to fit the show into Trek’s established canon:

I love the box that we are in, because it can be so overwhelming when you look at the entire universe of Star Trek … but we were able to focus on somewhere on the timeline and we know that this happened before and this happened after. They say boundaries and restrictions can be good and for us it was good. It also gave us an opportunity to lay in some easter eggs and we feel very, very, very strongly about making sure that we fit into canon, making sure that there are not any loose ends that may be the story that is being told right now, but we are going to fit into that timeline. A lot of consideration has been put into it.

The co-showrunner also acknowledged that the designs on the show have to work with a modern audience:

As far as shooting a show starting in 2017, we have to also realize we have caught up with The Original Series, like everyone talks about iPads and PADDS and stuff like that. We just have to make sure that it makes sense. We have our art director and prop designer and everyone who is madly in love with our show and also all the shows, and so they are paying attention to that.

Promises even more diversity in Discovery

One of the most touted things about Star Trek: Discovery is the diversity of its cast of characters. Berg noted that diversity has always been part of the franchise, and promised more:

We also wanted to reflect the world we live in now because that was always been the vision of Starfleet and [Gene] Roddenberry, that everyone was represented. We know there are still people that have not been represented yet on our show and it will be our goal to make sure we get everybody in there that we can. We are aware of it and it is something we are dedicated to and it is exciting. It is our responsibility to make sure that wherever you are on this planet and whatever background you come from, you turn on the show you are going to see yourself.

More from Vulture Festival panel to come

Tomorrow we will have a full report on the panel with more pictures, so stay tuned.