Bryan Fuller, who launched his career writing for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, will return to the television franchise as co-creator and executive producer of the new CBS Star Trek series. As previously announced, the new series, produced by CBS Television Studios, will launch with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network in early 2017. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network's digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.

The new Star Trek series marks the first original series developed for CBS All Access. The next chapter of the Star Trek franchise will also be distributed concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studios International. Here's what Bryan Fuller had to say in a statement about joining this new series.

"My very first experience of Star Trek is my oldest brother turning off all the lights in the house and flying his model of a D7 Class Klingon Battle Cruiser through the darkened halls. Before seeing a frame of the television series, the Star Trek universe lit my imagination on fire. It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand-new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before."

Recently, Fuller served as executive producer and writer on NBC's Hannibal, based on the characters from the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. He got his start writing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, followed by Star Trek: Voyager where he worked his way from freelance writer to staff writer to co-producer. Fuller went on to create the critically acclaimed series Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. Also, he served as writer and co-executive producer on the first season of Heroes, before leaving to create the Emmy Award-winning Pushing Daisies. Fuller is currently executive producing along with partner Michael Green an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods for the Starz network. Here's what Alex Kurtzman had to say in his statement.

"Bringing Star Trek back to television means returning it to its roots, and for years those roots flourished under Bryan's devoted care. His encyclopedic knowledge of Trek canon is surpassed only by his love for Gene Roddenberry's optimistic future, a vision that continues to guide us as we explore strange new worlds."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Half a century later, the Star Trek television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than 1 billion social media impressions every month. Here's what David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios, had to say in his statement.

"For the past 50 years, Star Trek has been a groundbreaking franchise that not only changed the landscape of television, but made a significant impact on pop culture. When we began discussions about the series returning to television, we immediately knew that Bryan Fuller would be the ideal person to work alongside Alex Kurtzman to create a fresh and authentic take on this classic and timeless series. Bryan is not only an extremely gifted writer, but a genuine fan of Star Trek. Having someone at the helm with his gravitas who also understands and appreciates the significance of the franchise and the worldwide fan base was essential to us."

Star Trek will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman's Secret Hideout. Kurtzman, Fuller and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. CBS All Access is the CBS Television Network's digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service. CBS All Access gives CBS fans the ability to watch more than 7,500 episodes on demand - spanning current shows from primetime, daytime and late night, as well as past seasons of select series and classic TV hits, including every episode of all previous Star Trek television series. CBS All Access is currently available online at CBS.com, on mobile devices via the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, and on Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox 360 and Fire TV. To sign up, visit CBS.com/AllAccess.