Just eight months after he was announced as showrunner on the new Star Trek TV series, Bryan Fuller departed the project.

He's now dedicating all his attention to a new enterprise - so to speak - putting the finishing touches to an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's beloved fantasy novel American Gods.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Fuller said that his busy schedule played into his exit from Star Trek: Discovery - and insisted that he is satisfied with how things worked out.

"With Star Trek, ultimately it was about not being able to do what CBS needed to be done in the time that they needed it done," he said.

"Part of that was [down to] my responsibilities to American Gods, which I'm very dedicated to, and so it was unfortunate to take a step back away from that show... and mainly because of the opportunity that I believe that Star Trek provides - for a conversation about progress, for humanity and the planet, and being able to tap into that."

He concluded: "I will miss doing Star Trek, but this is the best path."

Starz

[Above: Bryan Fuller on the set of American Gods]

Fuller further suggested that while Star Trek is "a religion-free show", the themes of faith and immigration in American Gods will make it "resonant and present" in 2016.

"Religion on the planet has kind of gone extinct in a way [in Star Trek] and right now religion is feeding a lot of issues in many different ways," he said. "As an artist, I want to represent the times in which we are telling a story and I feel like I have that opportunity with American Gods."

Fuller recently confirmed that he's "not involved in production, or [the] post-production" of Star Trek: Discovery - which has announced Doug Jones (Hellboy), Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as its first cast members.

American Gods will be available exclusively in the UK on Amazon Prime Video in April 2017.

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Star Trek: Discovery TV show 2017: Cast, characters, episodes and everything you need to know

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