Star Trek Brings Iron Man Tech To Discovery's 32nd Century

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 9 - "Lagrange Point"

Summary Star Trek: Discovery season 5's "Lagrange Point" episode pays homage to Iron Man with innovative heads-up display shots.

Director Jonathan Frakes created a way to replicate Iron Man's closeups for the characters wearing Breen helmets in Discovery.

The use of Iron Man-style technology in Star Trek: Discovery adds a cool factor and strengthens the bond between Star Trek and Marvel.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 brought Iron Man-style technology into the 32nd century. Directed by Jonathan Frakes and written by Sean Cochran and Ari Friedman, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 9, "Lagrange Point", was an action and humor-packed heist adventure. Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), and Lt. Commander Gen Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon) go incognito as Breen to steal the portal to the Progenitors' treasure from the Breen Dreadnought. It turns out wearing a Breen helmet is just like when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is Iron Man.

Related Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide As Burnham seeks the universe's greatest treasure in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, she'll need help from a host of new and returning characters.

Directed by Jon Favreau, 2008's Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, centering it around the erratic but brilliant billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark. Whenever Stark donned Iron Man's helmet, Favreau ingeniously innovated close-ups so that audiences could see Robert Downey Jr.'s face and reactions via a distinctive heads-up display. Anyone who wore an Iron Man suit in Marvel Studios' Iron Man and Avengers movies also had their faces memorably appear this way.

Star Trek: Discovery’s Breen Helmet Is Just Like Iron Man

Director Jonathan Frakes explains how they filmed it

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When Captain Burnham and her away team wore Breen helmets in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 9, "Lagrange Point", their faces appeared in closeups exactly like Tony Stark in Iron Man. Director Jonathan Frakes told Screen Rant this was by design, and Discovery's director of photography Maya Bankovic innovated a means to replicate Iron Man's heads-up display:

Jonathan Frakes: Exactly. That's where it was stolen from. But we didn't have the money for those shots, the Iron Man shots. So we found a lens, and then, we found a lighting setup that we could use so that not all of those would be visual effects shots. So then, the side of the frame, the anamorphic, Maya created a digital lighting gag that would suggest that we were, in fact, inside the helmet. Because as cool it is to go in there incognito, as you said, it's very confusing to keep track of where where our characters are in the show, unless we go in [the helmets].

Just as it worked in Iron Man, Star Trek: Discovery's heads-up displays allowed audiences to see Captain Burnham, Book, Adira, and Rhys' reactions as their infiltration mission went sideways. Among the fun moments was Michael's surprise when Book tried to flirt with a Breen as a distraction tactic. Being able to cut to Discovery's heroes' close-ups also helped differentiate each character from the faceless uniformity of the Breen. It also doesn't hurt to weave some of Iron Man's big screen cool factor into Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek Just Got Another Big Link To Marvel

Picard's showrunner says, "Make Mine Marvel"

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Over 20 years before Star Trek: Discovery's homage to Iron Man, Star Trek became forever linked to Marvel thanks to Patrick Stewart. Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Jean-Luc Picard became known to a new audience when Stewart played Professor X AKA Professor Charles Xavier in 2000's X-Men, a role he would reprise multiple times throughout the X-Men movies, most recently in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Also in X-Men was Rebecca Romijn as Mystique before she became Number One in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Also in X-Men was Famke Janssen, who guest-starred opposite Stewart in Star Trek: TNG.

Other crossover Marvel and Star Trek actors include Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Alice Eve.

Star Trek's newest Marvel crossover is Terry Matalas, the acclaimed showrunner of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Matalas was tapped as the new showrunner of Marvel's untitled Vision Disney+ series, targeted for a 2026 release. Vision brings back Paul Bettany as the heroic synthezoid, who debuted in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron after Bettany voiced JARVIS, Tony Stark's A.I., in the three Iron Man movies. Star Trek: Discovery weaving in Iron Man-style tech further strengthens the bond between Star Trek and Marvel.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+