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Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Finale Director Discusses How They Pulled Off [SPOILER]'s Surprise Cameo


Credit: Paramount+

WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the fourth season finale of Star Trek: Discovery titled "Coming Home."

The fourth season finale of Star Trek: Discovery is now upon us closing the season-long arc regarding a galaxy-threatening anomaly that could have destroyed Earth and Ni'Var. As usual, the Discovery team saved the day while Book was sentenced by the Federation to help families displaced by the DMA.

However, the biggest highlight of the finale is the cameo appearance at the end by politician Stacey Abrams, who played the President of United Earth. The former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and current candidate in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election showed up near the end of the episode to proclaim that the United Earth is ready to rejoin the Federation.

Abrams' cameo came as a huge surprise since she is a politician and you wouldn't expect someone like her to show up in a science-fiction TV show set in the future and play a fictional character. So how did the Star Trek: Discovery team pull off the cameo? As it turns out, it wasn't as hard as you might expect.

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Credit: Paramount+

Speaking to TVLine, season four finale director Olatunde Osunsanmi discussed how they were able to get Abrams to do a cameo role to which he revealed that it only took a few phone calls and shared that she was very prepared when she showed up on set to film her scene.

"Wilson Cruz [who plays Hugh Culber] has a relationship with her, and he asked [showrunner] Michelle Paradise and [executive producer] Alex Kurtzman if they’d be willing jump on the phone with her," he said. "It turned out that she is a legit fan, quoting dialogue from episodes. [They tried to see which part worked for her] and ended up choosing President of Earth."

He continued, "She came on set and everybody’s head exploded, because 90 percent of the crew didn’t know she was coming. You could just see necks break like, ‘What?! Stacey? What is going on?’ She killed it. She knew her lines, knew the intentions and motivations behind them, delivered them great and understood the blocking that I was trying to do with it. It was really strange to be directing Stacey Abrams, but it was really cool at the same time. Sonequa [Martin-Green]’s head was exploding. She had a good time talking to her between takes and then performing with her on camera. It was really special."

It is awesome that they were able to pull off this surprise cameo and it is fitting that Abrams will play the President of the United Earth since, of course, she is currently one of the most prominent politicians. It would be interesting to see if she'll show up in the next season now that the United Earth has rejoined the Federation and, considering that she will be very busy this year due to the upcoming election, it would be lucky if the Discovery team can pull it off again.

Also Read: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Casts The Vampire Diaries Star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk

The fourth season finale of Star Trek: Discovery is now available to stream on Paramount+.

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