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Bryan Fuller posted this on Instagram as a birthday greeting to Laurence Fishburne, back on July 30.
So apparently Fuller had intended to carry over the Hannibal cast into Discovery in various parts — and this was how he'd imagined Fishburne in Klingon prosthetics. It also suggests that the much maligned Disco Klingon designs were decided upon after Fuller left as (preliminary) show runner.
ETA: Here is a rundown of the casting plans he had in mind, originally revealed on the D-con chamber podcast. I would have watched Gillian Anderson as a starship captain.
Enterprise was 20 years after TNG changed the Klingons to a new design... How is that a backpedal?
They worked hard to weave the change into the lore with a well thought-out storyline.
In Disco they backpedaled in the second series by slapping on big (almost comically lustrous) wigs in season 2 and said 'oh the hair? Yeah we shave it during war'.... Nevermind the fact that they've had long hair during wartime for the preceding 60 years of ST lore.
I don't think I'm being inconsistent or unfair at all, these are two very different approaches that paint a very different picture of motives. One was to tie up a loose end in the lore that the writers wanted to remedy in a satisfying way for the lore - the other is a 10 minute fix that just adds more lore issues.