Star Trek: Discovery has found its lead.

It's Walking Deadactress Sonequa Martin-Green, Mashablehas confirmed. She will be the first African-American woman to lead a Star Trekcast, fulfilling executive producer Bryan Fuller's goal for a female lead that would ideally be played by a woman of color.

Martin-Green will continue to appear in her regular role as Sasha on The Walking Dead in addition to starring in Discovery.

The actress joins previously announced cast members Michelle Yeoh, Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp, who will all serve as Starfleet officers, along with Chris Obi, Shazad Latif and Mary Chieffo, who are portraying Klingons.

Martin-Green's lead character will not be the ship's captain, as in previous iterations of the series, and will instead serve as a lieutenant commander aboard the Discovery, because, as Fuller explained to reporters in August, "We’ve seen six series from captains’ points of view."

Mashable Top StoriesStay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news.Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletterBy signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO:'Star Trek Discovery' will boldly launch with a new ship, new format

Instead, he was interested in exploring "a character from a different perspective, who has a different dynamic with the captain, with subordinates," he said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in August.

At the time, Fuller described Martin-Green's character as possessing “a strength and sensitivity and an amusing neurosis that goes with exploring space."

He added, “In order to understand something that’s completely alien from her, she has to understand herself. It’s so easy to look at someone different from ourselves and think how we would think in their shoes, but we cannot imagine how they’d think because we are not them. It’s part of the character’s journey in this first season.”

Fuller has since stepped back from showrunner duties on the series to focus on his commitments to American Godsand a number of other projects in development, but is still attached to the series as an executive producer. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts are now showrunning and executive producing alongside Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth.

Star Trek: Discoveryis scheduled to premiere in May on CBS, with subsequent episodes available exclusively on CBS All Access.

CBS All Access and CBS Television Studios declined to comment on the news, which was first reported by Entertainment Weekly.

---

Featured Video For You

---

A behind-the-scenes look at the many lives of BB-8 from 'Star Wars'

---

TopicsThe Walking Dead