Non-Binary Character to Reportedly Feature in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3

Star Trek: Discovery

Hot on the heels of CBS Entertainment pledging to support more actors with disabilities, rumor has it that CBS is casting an actor to play a non-binary character in the next season of Star Trek: Discovery.

The website DiscussingFilm.net dropped an article late last week, saying that they had learned that CBS All Access is casting for a non-binary character called ADIRA. From the piece: “The character is said to have a major role for one episode with the potential to become a recurring character throughout the rest of the third season. CBS are looking to cast someone over the age of 18 of any ethnicity who can play the part of a 16 year old.” DiscussingFilm failed to cite any specific source for the news.

For those of you unaware of what non-binary is, I will let Wikipedia do the explaining: “Non-binary, also known as genderqueer, is a spectrum of gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine [...] Non-binary people may identify as having two or more genders [...], having no gender [...], moving between genders or having a fluctuating gender identity, or being third gender or other-gendered, a category that includes those who do not place a name to their gender.

“Gender identity is separate from sexual or romantic orientation, and non-binary people have a variety of sexual orientations, just as transgender and cisgender people do.

“A non-binary gender is not associated with a specific gender expression, such as androgyny. Non-binary people as a group have a wide variety of gender expressions.”

While ADIRA would not be the first non-binary character on television, nor even on Star Trek, as a general rule, non-binary characters are exceedingly rare in pop culture. The casting, if true, would mark a notable screen representation of a marginalized group.

Production on Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is expected to start later this month.