Could Lorca be in Star Trek Discovery season 2? Here’s what we know

If you’re on the hunt for Star Trek Discovery Lorca information, you’re in the right place. Star Trek Discovery season 2 is fully underway now, but there’s one question firmly lodged in the brains of so many fans (mine included): will the former captain of Star Trek Discovery, Lorca, be returning to our screens? After that Star Trek Discovery season 1 ending it’s dubious whether he’ll be appearing again on the decks of one of Starfleet’s ships, but there are some clues out there in the wild that do clear up when Star Trek Discovery Lorca will be returning. Just cast those eyeballs of yours below to find out when you can see that rogue’s face on your television screen once more.

SPOILER WARNING: Don’t read any further if you haven’t finished Star Trek Discovery season 1 in its entirety. Consider yourself warned. 

Star Trek Discovery Lorca isn’t returning in season 2 (sorry)

I’m going to get straight to the point - Lorca isn’t returning to Star Trek Discovery season 2. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, answered the question as clearly as possible: “I will tell you that you should not expect to see [Prime Lorca] this season but that doesn’t mean he won’t be back”. Keep an eye out for his familiar face returning in season 3 or later, but I’m afraid that’s as clear as things can be for season 2: unless Kurtzman is telling a big fat lie, there’s no sign of Lorca on the horizon. Sob. 

And yes, that goes for both Mirror Lorca and Prime Lorca. After Mirror Lorca replaced Prime Lorca in Star Trek Discovery season 1, infiltrated Starfleet with his fake identity, took over command of the Discovery, managed to jump back into the mirror universe, and then finally died at the hands of Emperor Georgiou, I think it’s safe to say that resurrecting him from being exploded into a million tiny little pieces would be very difficult. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for him to return at a later date. This is science fiction, after all.  As for Prime Universe Lorca… he could definitely still be alive in Star Trek Discovery, but judging by what Kurtzman said, there’s no chance he’ll be in season 2. 

Here’s how Prime (and Mirror) Lorca *could* appear in Star Trek Discovery

Ok, ok, so Star Trek Discovery Lorca - at least the Prime version - isn’t returning in season 2. But there’s clearly demand for the (hopefully) loyal captain to make a return, with one appeal coming from none other than the show’s cast. 

Look, all I’m saying is that if they want to see the addition of Prime Lorca to Star Trek Discovery, then there’s a real chance it could be on the cards in season 3. Mirror Lorca could also come back - now hear me out - via the mycelial network. A web of subspace fungi that invisibly traverses entire galaxies and links universes together, it’s a powerful tool indeed, but goes far further than just allowing the Discovery to ‘jump’ to different locations instantly. During season 2 Stamets reveals to Tilly that he saw Hugh (still not over his death, by the way) in the mycelial network, which hints that no-one is ever really dead. There’s the potential to stumble across them when using Discovery’s Spore Drive, so Star Trek Discovery’s Lorca - the Mirror version - could reappear when Stamets next uses the Spore Drive. After all, when asked about whether Mirror Lorca was really, truly dead, Jason Isaacs (who plays Lorca) said that “I’ve lied to all of the press constantly since the very first day I got this job. So why would you believe anything I say now?”.

As for Prime Lorca, there’s no clear evidence that he perished on the USS Buran with the crew. Isaacs clarified precisely how Mirror Lorca stole his place in the Prime universe in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and apparently Mirror Lorca “swapped with [Prime Lorca] and found himself captain of the Buran...[Mirror] Lorca spins this story having had to sacrifice the men on Buran and had to blow them up to save them from Klingon torture. Actually, if I remember correctly, there was some kind of DNA identification that would have exposed Lorca as not being Prime Lorca, and so he blew up the ship and killed everyone on it”. Afterwards Isaacs confirms that what happened to Prime Lorca - whether he’s in the Mirror universe, or hiding in the Prime universe - is still an open question. When pressed about what happened to Prime Lorca, he had only this to say: 

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