ART!
Deluxe Unhuman
The pic in that article is Photoshopped (or otherwise doctored up).
Strange New Worlds trailer
MarkB
Legend
I don't know if that's true, but he was also photographed on location in a captain's uniform, leading to mass wild speculation about whether this was a character we knew or some unknown captain, leading to the official announcement.
Hex08
Hero
Do we have proof of that?
Ryujin
Legend
I would say no to that. I just checked the Paramount+ Twitter feed and they posted the same picture there at 6:00pm, on March 15th.
ART!
Deluxe Unhuman
Yeah, after I posted my claim, I came across higher-res images and from more reliable sources, and yeah, it seems genuine!
My daughter says that actor is "hot", so this casting may bring in some new viewers...
darkwillow
Explorer
i don't know any star trek lore to be offended, but the dude looks like he would be a good captain. I thought he was going to be Pike not Kirk, I didn't read the blurbs carefully.
Ryujin
Legend
It is Pike. Seems that Kirk makes an appearance in season 2.
ART!
Deluxe Unhuman
This is perhaps confusing, so:
Anson Mount plays Captain Christopher Pike in SNW season 1, and potentially any seasons the show has after that.
Paul Wesley has been cast as "James T. Kirk" in SNW season 2. Some have observed the rank on his uniform in that one image released is a captain's rank, but I don't have the time or interest to confirm that. We don't know how much screen time he'll get or where he'll fit into whatever stories they tell in season 2.
MarkB
Legend
Yeah, Anson Mount is one of the show's big selling points - it was his performance in Star Trek Discovery that initially sparked calls for a spin-off, with even those who otherwise dislike the show praising his portrayal of the character. In the show's trailer he's the only character who gets significant screen time. It would seem very unlikely that they'd pivot to Kirk becoming captain of the Enterprise in season 2, barring Mount being unavailable for some reason.
Well, we wouldn't expect the Enterprise to be his first command. Non-cannon (meaning, in novels and comics), he commanded the USS Aloia (in drydock at the time), USS Oxford (NCC-751) and the USS Lydia Sutherland (registry unspecified) before the Enterprise.
