Anson Mount was originally in discussion for completely different Star Trek character

Anson Mount was about to play a different character in Star Trek: Discovery

Yes, it’s true, Captain Coif himself was almost not Captain Christopher Pike, the star of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Nope. Mount debuted as Pike on Discovery, but had things broken a bit differently than they had, Mount would’ve been on the show a full season beforehand.

And then someone else would have to have their hair coifed to play Pike.

Speaking to Esquire, Mount reveals he was originally up for the role of Captain Gabriel Lorca, the eventual big bad of the season. The role ultimately went to Jason Isaacs, who did a great job with the role but was only around for the first season.

"According to Akiva [Goldsman], when he joined Discovery and when they were preparing Season One, he’d only been told, “It’s a Star Trek prequel.” He assumed that it was going to be the Pike show. He shows up and he’s like, “Wait, what? What’s Discovery?” He told [CBS], “Well, okay, but you really should do a Pike show.” Then the ideas were rolling around for Season Two, and I had been in discussion with him about Season One for [the villain] Captain Lorca. They hired Jason Isaacs, which I would have as well, but then they thought, “Well, maybe Anson will fit in this one, for Pike.” And that worked."

Anson Mount found the right role after all

Mount missing out on Gabriel Lorca may have been a blow, but with the above interview, we now know that Alex Kurtzman always believed Discovery was going to be a Pike prequel until it wasn’t. So while Pike may have been in line to play Lorca, the fact that he lost it out to Isaacs isn’t that shocking or hard to understand. He’s tremendous.

Clearly, there was a long play here, and maybe Kurtzman always saw Mount as his Pike, which may explain why they went with Isaacs in the first place, holding off on using Mount until Pike came into play.

Maybe it’s just serendipity that things happened the way they did. Who’s to say, but what we do know is that Mount landing Pike was a better role for him, and for the franchise as a whole.

There’s no doubt others could’ve brought Pike to life but Mount has just done a brilliant job with it that it’s hard to think could’ve been more charming than him?