See Star Trek’s New Uhura Up Close
Star Trek has a brand new version of communications officer Nyota Uhura, and this shows her in action, exploring strange new worlds.
We are finally getting a look at the brand new Nyota Uhura in action. This particular iteration of the character had been teased in images for the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but Paramount has released a video on Twitter actually showing actor Celia Rose Gooding in character as Uhura. As Strange New Worlds is a prequel series about the adventures of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) prior to the arrival of one James T. Kirk, this is a younger and less experienced Uhura than we have seen so far in various different continuities. Check it out:
Whereas in Star Trek: The Original Series, Uhura (as played by Nichelle Nichols) was introduced as a lieutenant and the chief communications officer of the Enterprise, this version of the character is a cadet. She appears to be fresh out of Starfleet Academy, but is already presented as one of the best and brightest of the fleet (and is referenced as speaking 37 languages). This is clearly meant as a teaser trailer to pump up excitement for the series (and it worked!), but you can see flashes of Uhura in a spacesuit of some kind, as part of an armed group of the crew in some shadowy chamber, and interacting with some chemistry towards Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck). That seems to be a bit of a hint that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds might be keeping the romantic angle between Uhura and everyone’s favorite half-Vulcan that was introduced in the reboot Star Trek film series (or Kelvin continuity, if you’re nasty), where the characters were portrayed by Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is introducing mostly new actors to established roles. While Christopher Pike was primarily an off-screen character in The Original Series, he was played by several different actors (including Bruce Greenwood in the Kelvin movies). Uhura has only previously been played by Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana, while Spock has been the late Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. A number of new characters are being introduced, including Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh (who appears to have some connection to Captain Kirk’s eventual nemesis Khan), Melissa Navia as Erica Ortega, and Bruce Horak as Hemmer. The idea behind Strange New Worlds is to show the Enterprise on its original mission of exploring, well, strange new worlds, as opposed to the increasingly convoluted histories of Star Trek: Picard or even Star Trek: Prodigy.
Celia Rose Gooding is joining the Star Trek franchise after first breaking through to Broadway audiences as an original cast member of the rock musical Jagged Little Pill, written by filmmaker Diablo Cody based on the music Alanis Morissette. In 2021, she won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. This will be her first regular starring television role, and it is a pretty impressive leap to a new medium. Based on the trailer, she is going to fill the role of Uhura with her own fresh take and we are excited to see it.
