Queen mother Angela Bassett is a collective community favorite on the small and silver screens, playing some of our all-time favorite characters. Thanks to Bryan Fuller’s announcement as show runner for the new Star Trek television series reboot, the esteemed actress might be the franchise’s second black woman to play a Starfleet captain. Madge Sinclair was the first woman and black actor on screen as captain of the USS Saratoga. The show will be available on CBS All Access, the network’s online streaming service, in 2017.
Fuller is no stranger to the Star Trek universe. At the beginning of his TV career, one of his first gigs was writing episodes for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He then moved on to the Voyagerseries. A true fan of the show growing up, Fuller told EW, “My very first experience of Star Trek is my oldest brother turning off all the lights in the house and flying his model of a D7 Class Klingon Battle Cruiser through the darkened halls…It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand-new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.”
Fuller, creator of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies, is a hire that the Trekkie community is excited about because of his passion for the show and it’s possibilities. Casting for Star Trek has not been announced, although he says Bassett would be his pick.
During an interview in 2013 he shared his idea of a dream cast for a Star Trek show. “I want Angela Bassett to be the captain, that’s who I would love to have, you know Captain Angela Bassett and First Officer Rosario Dawson. I would love to do that version of the show but that’s in the future to be told.”
The blerd Trekkie community is crossing their fingers that Fuller hasn’t forgotten his dream now that he’s landed the position, starting the hashtag #CaptainAngelaBassett.
#CaptainAngelaBassett #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/wBnIkUlp0B
— We Are Wakanda (@WeAreWakanda) February 9, 2016
Time will only tell whether Bassett will be recording captain’s logs on her own starship in 2017. It never hurts to dream, and “fancasts” are making more of an impact than ever in the age of social media.
