Alex Kurtzman has suggested that Star Trek: Discovery's Spock and Pike may return to the franchise in the future. The debut season of Star Trek: Discovery sat quite apart from the established Star Trek canon, but that all changed with the arrival of the U.S.S. Enterprise in season 2. Discovery's sophomore run saw the Enterprise's Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) take charge of the Discovery and set out in search of Spock (Ethan Peck) who had mysteriously disappeared amid a sudden cluster of strange signals being detected throughout the galaxy.

Ultimately, Pike and the gang find Spock, and the crews of both the Enterprise and the Discovery team up to prevent a potentially apocalyptic threat from developing and taking over the universe. In Star Trek: Discovery's season 2 finale, the crew of the titular ship volunteer to travel into the far future in order to stop this particular threat in its tracks, leaving behind the Enterprise, along with Spock and Pike, in a dramatic moment of self-sacrifice where they are essentially written out of history. Star Trek: Discovery season 3 will follow Burnham and her crew into the future, following their adventures in a previously unexplored era of Star Trek history.

However, Star Trek: Discovery showrunner, Alex Kurtzman, has suggested that viewers may not have seen the last of Pike and Spock, although expecting them to crop up again in Discovery may be a little far-fetched. Speaking with Deadline, Kurtzman claims:

"I would be remiss in saying you’re going to see Spock again on Discovery because we’ve obviously jumped so far into the future that it wouldn’t make sense... But the the idea of bringing Ethan [Peck] back and Anson [Mount] and Rebecca [Romijn] and the Enterprise, I mean, we loved it so much and to find a way to do that is definitely something we’re thinking about."

The showrunner is completely correct in his assertion that it would make no sense for Spock or Pike to return with Discovery's current far-future setting and the fact that Kurtzman has ruled out shoe-horning the duo into a return is a positive sign. However, Kurtzman's comments do seem to strongly suggest that Star Trek fans will see Mount's Pike and Peck's Spock again in some form. This is incredibly welcome news, as both actors were well-received in their roles, and an online petition was started to facilitate the continuation of their story.

Of course, Kurtzman makes no indication of how the Enterprise crew could make their return. The Star Trek franchise is currently working on a number of spinoff series, and it's possible that a further show could be dedicated to this particular set of characters, existing entirely apart from Star Trek: Discovery, or they could feature in the forthcoming Section 31 spinoff. However, it's also possible that Kurtzman has something else in mind. The audience currently has no idea how long the Discovery will spend in the future and although there's no obvious way back, the ship could potentially return to their home time period at some point during season 3. If this proves to be the case, it would be easy to reintroduce Spock and Pike, albeit somewhat harder to explain to Starfleet, who believe the crew to be deceased.

Alternatively, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 could tell two separate narratives, with one plot chronicling the future antics of the Discovery, and another centered on the Enterprise in the present.