'Star Trek: Discovery' release date news 2016: Showrunner Bryan Fuller exits the series

A lot of "Star Trek" fans were excited to hear that CBS was working on a new series with "Hannibal" showrunner Bryan Fuller at its helm. The bad news is that Fuller has reportedly left as showrunner in order to work on two other series, "Amazing Stories" and the TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods."

Variety reported that his showrunner duties have been passed on to executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. The first two episodes of the series are still written by Fuller and it's also said that he will stay on to be an executive producer.

In a statement, CBS said, "We are extremely happy with the creative direction of 'Star Trek: Discovery' and the strong foundation that Bryan Fuller has helped us create for the series. Due to Bryan's other projects, he is no longer able to oversee the day-to-day of 'Star Trek,' but he remains an executive producer, and will continue to map out the story arc for the entire season... Bryan is a brilliant creative talent and passionate 'Star Trek' fan, who has helped us chart an exciting course for the series. We are all committed to seeing this vision through and look forward to premiering 'Star Trek: Discovery' this coming May 2017."

The positive thing that fans can take from the news is that the show can now move along faster due to Fuller's departure.

It's said that "Discovery" will be a prequel series and that it will be taking place way before Kirk and Spock were ever members of Starfleet. The ship in the series is numbered "NCC-1301." The ship in the original series was the "NCC-1701," meaning that there are at least 400 explorer ships that came between "Discovery" and the original series.

"Star Trek: Discovery" is set for release in May 2017.