CBS All Access felt it was "good business" for Star Trek: Discovery to revolve around women of color

ComicBook.com

"We certainly feel that it's important to reflect the culture on our service," says Julie McNamara, CBS All Access' executive vice president of original content, in a Vanity Fair profile of Star Trek's streaming future. "And that's not just altruistic, although it is a good and important thing. It's also good business. You really want to reach people in a way that feels specific in terms of characters and story telling." Alex Kurtzman, CBS All Access' Star Trek boss, adds: "About three years ago when, when CBS asked me to consider doing another Star Trek, my first instinct was: it's got to be a woman and it's got to be a woman of color. I'm not interested in having another male captain. We made that very clear and a condition of our involvement and Julie was immediately supportive of it. And one thing I remember very clearly was that we were still casting the morning Trump was elected and somehow in the casting conversation this question came up like, okay, do we have to reconsider this? And we doubled down and said, this is exactly why we have to do this right now. And for me personally, I have a harder time writing men—that's the truth. I don't know why. It's always been the case."