Jason Isaacs has hinted at the possibility of returning to Star Trek: Discovery, but perhaps not as exactly the same character. Isaacs played Captain Gabriel Lorca in the show’s first season. Or more specifically, “Mirror Lorca,” a version of the Captain from a Mirror Universe who assumed his place in the Prime Universe.
The fate of the “Prime” Lorca is unknown, which leaves the possibility that he could be introduced in a future episode. When asked about that, here’s what Isaacs told the Empire Film Podcast:
Where is Prime Lorca? Well, I admit that we talk. It’s not like when Mirror Lorca bit the bullet there wasn’t a clamouring for Prime Lorca, but the thing is, it has got to be a great story. Pike is already there! We know what he is like. We have seen him and he’s great. We don’t know who Prime Lorca is. If he is Mirror Lorca’s Frank Spencer-like cousin, then nobody wants to spend time with him.
He is going to have to be as interesting, as ballsy, and you have to find him a ship and find him a context to bring him into a story. So, we talk. And when and if we come up with something we think is fabulous I will happily go on a starvation diet required to slip into the snakeskin uniform again.
He certainly sounds game for “slipping into the snakeskin suit” once more. Ordinarily, an actor’s character getting killed off (as Mirror Lorca was in the episode “What’s Past Is Prologue”), would close the door on any ongoing regular role. But sci-fi is more malleable than most genres when it comes to character deaths, and with a parallel universe storyline established in Discovery, there’s sound logic to delving into the fate of Prime Lorca. Isaacs even confirmed that discussions on the subject have already taken place. Star Trek fans, I’d say watch this space.
Excited by Isaacs’ comments? How does meeting Prime Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery sound to you? Leave us a comment with your thoughts below. I think Jason Isaacs makes anything he’s in better, from giving Georgy Zhukov a Yorkshire accent in The Death of Stalin to bringing real nastiness to Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. I confess I haven’t watched this series, and from the general reception, I can’t say I’m sprinting to queue it up. But if the writers find a way to bring him back (and the plotting looks to have been planned with that in mind), it’ll be all the better for it.