Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Casts A Marvel Actor As Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

The recasting of fan-favorite characters from "Star Trek: The Original Series" will continue until morale improves ... or until "Strange New Worlds" comes to a close with its fifth and final season. Whichever comes first. The Paramount+ prequel series has steadily added to its roster of classic heroes from franchise lore, first with Ethan Peck as our newest Spock and continuing with Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, and even incorporating Martin Quinn as every Trekkie's beloved Montgomery Scott in recent seasons. Viewers have patiently awaited news on whether the show would ever round out its ensemble and bring in the rest of the USS Enterprise crew: namely, Hikaru Sulu (originally played by George Takei and again by John Cho in the recent movies) and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley and Karl Urban).

We now know that is exactly the plan — and one of those castings will be well familiar to Marvel fans.

In an unexpected development, Deadline has revealed that both Sulu and McCoy will finally make their appearances in "Strange New Worlds." Sulu will be played by Japanese actor Kai Murakami, predominantly known for his theatre work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and performance-capture performances in video games such as "Assassin's Creed" and "Rise of the Ronin." But the big headline-making news is that Thomas Jane of "The Punisher" fame has been recruited to portray our favorite grumpy doctor, Bones. There's one catch, however: Fans will have to wait quite some time before they make their appearances, as it's been revealed that they'll only arrive during the final episode of "Strange New Worlds" in season 5.

What a time to be alive. Not only have we been blessed with a "Star Trek" prequel series that recaptures much of what Trekkies loved from "The Original Series," but we now get to see none other "The Punisher" star Thomas Jane set aside his over-the-top weapons and whip out his medical tricorder as Bones on "Strange New Worlds." The news of his and Kai Murakami's casting comes as a bit of a surprise, given that the creative team behind "Strange New Worlds" has long played coy about whether the legacy characters of Bones and Sulu would ever actually appear in the flesh during the prequel series. (With that said, they've definitively ruled out any appearance by Anton Chekov.) Now begins the debate over whether Jane and Murakami truly embody their respective characters — a time-honored tradition when it comes to any instance of "Trek" recasting.

More interestingly, however, their limited roles in "Strange New Worlds" raise certain questions. The fact that they'll only appear in the season 5 finale suggests that the series will bow out right when Kirk takes over the Enterprise as captain, setting the stage for all the adventures to come as told in "The Original Series." At the same time, "Trek" producers Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Henry Alonso have hinted at the idea of keeping the good times rolling with a hypothetical "Star Trek: Year One" — a sequel series that covers the (untold) events of "The Original Series." Is this meant as a dangling carrot for Paramount to finally give that show a green light? That's certainly the hope, but we'll have to wait and see.

"Strange New Worlds" season 4 beams to Paramount+ sometime in 2026.