Is Timothee Chalamet In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a minor character who looks exactly like Timothée Chalamet. Did the Dune star make a surprise cameo as Ensign Lance?

Is Timothee Chalamet In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 3 – “Ghosts of Illyria”

Did Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet make a surprise appearance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 3? Continuing a new five-year mission of the Starship Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Strange New Worlds episode 3, “Ghosts of Illyria,” delves into the heretofore unrevealed backstory of Number One AKA Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn). “Ghosts of Illyria” is a horror-themed episode about a mysterious contagion infecting the Enterprise crew that kicks off by a crewman who looks a lot like Timothée Chalamet bringing the disease aboard the starship.

Timothée Chalamet is one of the most talented and in-demand young actors in Hollywood today. The 26-year-old appeared in Showtime’s Homeland and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar before his breakout role in Call Me By Your Name, which earned Chalamet an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. More high-profile roles in Lady Bird, Beautiful Boy, Netflix’s The King, and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women followed before Chalamet’s biggest blockbuster to date: the leading role of Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Chalamet will reprise Paul Atreides in Dune 2 but before that, he will follow in Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp’s footsteps and embody the iconic role of Willy Wonka in Wonka. Chalamet’s career is skyrocketing as a bona fide movie star, which is why it was such a shock when it appears as if Timothée joined another classic sci-fi franchise and took a minor cameo role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 3.

However, it’s actually an actor named Daniel Gravelle, not Timothée Chalamet, who plays Ensign Lance in Strange New Worlds episode 3. Gravelle has been previously seen in People of Earth, HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 opposite Michael B. Jordan, and Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. It’s understandable if audiences are momentarily confused and believe that Ensign Lance is Chalamet because Gravelle’s resemblance to the Oscar nominee is uncanny. They share similar builds and facial features, and Gravelle even has a nearly identical hairstyle to the one Chalamet sports as Paul Atreides in Dune. It’s even possible that Gravelle’s resemblance to Chalamet is one of the reasons he was cast in the role of Ensign Lance in Strange New Worlds.

Ensign Lance is the first victim of the Illyrian virus in Strange New Worlds episode 3. After inadvertently getting infected while looking in a locker full of broken and empty tubes and vials, Lance beamed out of an abandoned Illyrian base with most of the Enterprise’s landing party. Soon after he’s back aboard the ship, Lance begins desperately trying to get closer to any light source and he bashes his own skull through a window to reach the radiance. Lance is subdued by Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) but soon, most of the crew of the Enterprise is afflicted with the disease.

It’s unclear whether Ensign Lance will return in future episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Lance’s role is basically that of a Red Shirt, the classic trope from Star Trek: The Original Series of a crewmember (usually wearing a red Starfleet uniform) who is either randomly killed or falls victim to a horrible calamity in a given episode. Ensign Lance is a minor role, which is why it was initially so startling to momentarily think that an actor of Timothée Chalamet’s stature would take it on as, essentially, a cameo. (Although famous actors have revealed themselves as Trekkies and performed cameos, like Christian Slater in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.) Amusingly, it’s now canon that there’s a lookalike to 21st-century Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet in the 23rd-century Starfleet of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.