How ‘Star Trek’ Got Stacey Abrams For That Surprise ‘Discovery’ Finale Cameo

Former House of Representatives member, and current Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has made no secret of her passion for Star Trek. She’s appeared on Star Trek podcasts, done interviews for books about the franchise, and as recently as March 6 she discussed her current candidacy by comparing it to sitting in the “captain’s chair.” But it’s probably fair to say that her cameo on today’s Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 finale — as the President of United Earth, no less — was still a shocker.

“We wanted to lock it down at every stage of the game,” Discovery co-showrunner Michelle Paradise told Decider of the surprise cameo. “We didn’t want that to get ahead of the show, and we wanted that to be an organic moment, for the audience to experience that in the moment. Everyone on our whole team was on board… It’s not as hard to lock those things down when everyone is on the same page.”

Over the past two seasons of Discovery, the crew of the titular ship has been flung to the far future, discovering (no pun intended) a universe broken apart and isolated. Over various adventures, they’ve slowly rebuilt the United Federation of Planets, with one noticeable hold-out: Earth. But thanks to the crew saving the entire galaxy from a strange alien race called the Ten-C, and their destructive mining apparatus called the DMA (Dark Matter Anomaly), Earth, it’s revealed, has finally agreed to join the Federation.

In this week’s episode, titled “Coming Home”, written by Paradise and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, the President of United Earth visits the Discovery to officially accept the invitation, and is revealed to be played by none other than Abrams. For Paradise, capping off this two-season arc with her appearance was the perfect way to end this journey.

“When we got about halfway through, and were coming to the finale, we realized, we needed a face for this,” Paradise recalled. “We needed someone to represent Earth, who can say the words, ‘Earth is back.’ … Stacey Abrams came to mind, knowing she’s a fan of the show, and all that she’s done for obvious reasons, all that she has done and continues to do.”

When the idea popped up, Paradise texted Alex Kurtzman, the architect and Executive Producer of the Star Trek franchise and co-showrunner of Discovery to get his take. Kurtzman’s answer? “He thought it was amazing, so many exclamation points when he texted me back,” Paradise said.

From there, Kurtzman and Paradise hopped on a Zoom with Abrams to find out if she might be interested in appearing on the show, with one, big caveat: Abrams didn’t want to know anything about what else was happening in Season 4 because she’s a fan, first. In lieu of spoilers, they pitched her the idea of Earth coming back to the Federation, as well as the general gist of her character. And with that, Abrams was in.

Still, it’s a tricky thing to bring a public personality like Abrams onto a TV show set without news leaking to the press. But Paradise credits Abrams’s “phenomenal” team for making everything smooth, safe and professional in bringing the politician to the show’s Toronto based set. There, the Star Trek superfan was treated to a tour of the production’s facility, as well as getting to work with the show’s new AR wall, a massive LED screen built by Pixomondo that simulates sets — a production technique made famous on another “star” franchise’s series, The Mandalorian.

Though Abrams is only on the show for one scene, it isn’t a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. Not only does Abrams formally agree to bring Earth back into the Federation, she also has a conversation with series star Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Captain Michael Burnham, that brings together many of the emotional threads and themes of the season.

“Her presence carries everything that I could have possibly hoped for in that character, who she is and what she represents” Paradise said on writing for Abrams. “And in her conversations with Burnham, a feeling that this season, the threats of this season, we’ve accomplished our goal. That, okay, we’re good… [But] that doesn’t mean the work is over. We have made it through this crucible together, and there is more work to do… She — and we — are always looking ahead to how we can make lives better. All of those positive things that are the bedrock of Trek… Giving those lines to [Abrams] and Sonequa, the President and Burnham, felt really important for our season.”

As Paradise emphasizes, there’s a clear undercurrent in the scene of what Abrams means to supporters in the real world as a powerful speaker and voting rights advocate who is running to be the first Black female Governor of Georgia, acting opposite Martin-Green, who as Burnham is the first Black female captain in Star Trek history. On the power of this moment, Paradise gave a shoutout to Osunsanmi, Discovery‘s producing director, noting that a large part of what works there are his visuals, as well as “what Stacey and Sonequa bring to the screen.”

That all said, despite what seems like a dream scenario for Abrams, the crew of Discovery, and Star Trek fans, as well as a powerful moment on and off set, there are potential real world ramifications of casting a political candidate as the President of United Earth on a science-fiction show. That potential blowback is something Paradise seems aware of.

“She is a political figure, so anytime you make that choice, to cast a real life person in a fictional role, there are going to be people who like that choice, and going to be people who don’t like that choice,” Paradise noted. “We felt really great, and very honored that she would come in and do our show, and play this role on our show. We couldn’t be happier about it. We feel very lucky.”

So given all this, should fans expect to see Abrams pop up again for guest spots in the show’s currently filming fifth season? The answer is almost definitely not, particularly because she’s kicking off another run at the Governor’s seat in Georgia. But if things do fall through in her aspirations, would Paradise be up for a Star Trek: West Wing spinoff focusing on Abrams’ President of United Earth? “I’m in, I’m all in,” Paradise said, laughing.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 is now available to stream in full on Paramount+.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery