[Warning: Spoilers for last night’s episode of The Walking Dead.]
When it was announced that Sonequa Martin-Green would be playing the lead role in Star Trek: Discovery, the first thing that producers did was scramble to reassure everyone that she would be able to continue as a regular on The Walking Dead while Discovery was in production. “No worries, Sasha is definitely still very much alive, ha ha, nothing to see here!” they presumably said, while smiling and kicking the script for last night’s season finale behind a door. Well, they don’t have to worry about playing coy with her double acting duties any more, as Sasha very much died in the conclusion of the season, came back as a zombie, bit someone’s face off, and was then stabbed offscreen by Maggie. That means any worries about her trying to kill the undead and serve as a top officer on a starship are now moot. Also, the new reboot of the Gene Roddenberry-created series is taking this opportunity to reveal a new name and rank for Martin-Green’s character: First Officer Michael Burnham.
This flies in the face of previous reports about the character’s name and title, but rather than attempt warp 10 and go back in time to make everyone forget about that, it looks like they’re simply going to tell us to ignore the role was formerly known as “Lt. Commander Rainsford.” With production underway, the series is now hoping for a late summer or early fall release date.