'Star Trek: Discovery' release date, cast news: Sonequa Martin-Green joins the cast of 'Star Trek: Discovery'

For the past few weeks, CBS has been busy bringing people onboard to fill up the cast for "Star Trek: Discovery," and it looks like the network finally found the right actress to play the lead role. CBS News has reported that Sonequa Martin-Green is joining the cast as the U.S.S. Discovery's lieutenant commander.

Martin-Green is currently playing Sasha in AMC's "The Walking Dead," and the actress will be the first African-American woman to play the lead character in a "Star Trek" series. She has worked with CBS before on "The Good Wife," and she also appeared in ABC's "Once Upon a Time."

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that "The Walking Dead" fans don't have to worry about Martin-Green leaving the show because production for "The Walking Dead" season 7 has already wrapped. The publication also revealed that Martin-Green won't have to return to the set of "The Walking Dead" until summer 2017, so she will have all the time in the world to concentrate on her role for "Star Trek: Discovery."

Aside from Martin-Green, "Star Trek: Discovery" will also star Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou, Doug Jones as alien science officer Lt. Saru, and Adam Rapp as the show's first openly gay character, Lt. Stamets. The character is the science officer on board the Discovery, and he is an astromycologist and a fungus expert.

A trio of actors has also joined the show to portray Klingons. Chris Obi will play T'Kuvma, a "Klingon leader seeking to unite the Klingon houses." Shazad Latif is going to portray play Kol, "commanding officer of the Klingons and protégé of T'Kuvma." And Mary Chieffo is cast as L'Rell, "the battle deck commander of the Klingon ship."

"Star Trek: Discovery" will premiere on CBS in May 2017 before it moves to CBS All Access. Each episode will be made available on Netflix a day after they are shown on CBS All Access.