HOLLYWOOD Q&A

Q: Is “Yellowstone” going to return? It was exceptionally well scripted and had a great cast.

A: The newly rebranded Paramount Network (formerly known as Spike, and before that The Nashville Network) placed a big bet on “Yellowstone,” renewing the costly prestige drama midway through its debut season. That bet paid off for the network, and it will pay off for fans, too, but we don’t know when yet.

All we know about the upcoming season is that production got underway around the time the first season was wrapping up in August, that the season will be 10 episodes long, and that it will premiere sometime in 2019. That’s a pretty big window, of course, but it will most likely be June, since that’s when the first season premiered.

I say the bet paid off for the network because the Season 1 finale in August, which came weeks after it was already renewed, was the show’s mostwatched episode since its premiere. And that’s saying something since it was already a hit — it was the second-mostwatched drama on ad-supported cable (behind “The Walking Dead”).

But that success does come at a cost. It’s an expensive show to produce, thanks to it being made on location in Montana and Utah, and thanks to a star-studded cast toplined by bona fide film great Kevin Costner.

If the show keeps producing those sorts of numbers, though,

it’s money well spent. The show is also a flagship of sorts for the network, one of the first originals it produced under the new brand.

Q: I’m just catching up with “Star Trek: Discovery” and am wondering: Is Rainn Wilson’s character a reference to something from one of the old shows? He feels, I don’t know, significant somehow.

A: You have a good eye for character development. In a show, indeed a long series of shows, that often features a creep-of-the-week type of disposable villain, Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Harry, for short) is indeed different.

The fact that he’s being played by a known actor — former “The Office” star Rainn Wilson — is a giveaway, but for fans of the original ‘60s “Star Trek” series, the name alone does it. Harry Mudd was a recurring, fan-favorite character in the original show.

Mudd is an intergalactic space conman who first appeared in the sixth-ever “Star Trek” episode (titled “Mudd’s Women”). He returned again in the second season, in an episode titled “I, Mudd,” and again in an episode of “Star Trek: The Animated Series” that aired in the mid-’70s.

There’s no word yet on whether he’ll return in “Discovery,” but given that they used him twice in just the first season, and that the showrunners seem to enjoy callbacks to the old “Star Trek,” the chances are good, at least.