Star Trek Discovery will feature the franchises first openly gay character

Star Trek Discovery, the upcoming Star Trek TV series will feature an openly gay character for the first time.

The news was announced during a panel discussion at Comic Con in San Diego.

Anthony Rapp, who plays Lieutenant Stamets, said his character is openly gay and Wilson Cruz will play his "love interest and partner".

Though Sulu was shown to be in a same sex relationship in Star Trek: Beyond (2016), this will be the first time the TV version has had a gay character.

It should also be pointed out that Star Trek: Beyond did not explore this fully. All we saw was Sulu being greeted by his partner, with only visuals and no dialogue.

LGBT advocate George Takei said 'his Sulu' was not gay in the original series.

This will be the first Star Trek TV series since Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled, over a decade ago in 2005.

Enterprise was cancelled due to poor ratings, so lets hope with the new generation of streaming services, and a fresh new look, we can look forward to many years of Star Trek: Discovery.

Here's the latest trailer for Discovery, which was released yesterday:

Star Trek Discovery premieres on CBS Action on September 24, and episodes will be available on Netflix, weekly, from September 25.