Star Trek: Discovery may have pulled a fast one, and we don’t mean using spore drive. A surprising theory now posits that a major spoiler is lurking among the series’ regular cast, for which CBS has gone to IMDb-forging lengths to conceal.

You’re warned of potential spoilers for Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery from here on out, but – as with previous Star Treks – you’d have difficulty recognizing certain actors without the layers of alien makeup. CBS may have been banking on just that, as fans have noticed a casting switcheroo behind Shazad Latif’s Lt. Ash Tyler, and Klingon extremist Voq.

You see, Latif was originally hired in the Klingon part of “Kol,” before Discovery tweaked his role to Tyler, a Starfleet series regular that curiously didn’t appear until Sunday’s fifth episode, “Choose Your Pain,” as prisoner to the Klingons. There’s little overtly suspicious about that, until you remember that Tyler appeared shortly after the cryptic disappearance of Voq; himself played by actor Javid Iqbal. Only one problem – Javid Iqbal appears not to exist.

Star Trek Discovery Voq Tyler Klingon Theory
CBS
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The actor has only one IMDb credit to his name, and zero social media presence. Considering Voq was last seen abandoned by the Klingon Empire, and headed to a mysterious “House of the Mokai” to learn a new tactic against Starfleet, Discovery may now have an undercover Klingon in its ranks. After all, devoted follower L’Rell last told him that the new strategy would come “at a cost,” and he’d need to sacrifice “everything.”

Thematically, it makes sense. The entire credo of T’Kuvma and Voq’s uprising was to “remain Klingon,” and Star Trek has a wide history of alien races disguising themselves as one another. At the very least, if indeed CBS went so far as to create a fake actor and IMDb page, we have to credit them with original thinking in the face of crowd-sourced reveals.

We’ll see if the Tyler/Voq theory pans out (he’d sure have to have assimilated quickly), so stay tuned for the latest Star Trek: Discovery in the meantime.

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