Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Hemmer actor, Bruce Horak, will return to the show in the future. The latest Star Trek series follows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew on the Federation flagship, the USS Enterprise, five years before Captain James T. Kirk takes command. Strange New Worlds is the sixth show introduced to the multi-generational science-fiction franchise following writer-producer Alex Kurtzman's rebranding, which began with Star Trek: Discovery in 2017.
Strange New Worlds episode 9, "All Those Who Wander," saw the USS Enterprise accept a priority assignment to investigate a missing starship, the USS Peregrine. In the episode, Pike leads a small team down to an icy planet to find that the ship had crashed and its crew were killed by the Gorn, a race of violent and highly intelligent aliens. After juvenile Gorn burst from an infected survivor, the crew come face-to-face with the creatures and one of them spits on Hemmer. Unfortunately for the USS Enterprise's chief engineer, the spit carries the eggs of the Gorn, dooming Hemmer. In a noble act, Hemmer leaps from the USS Peregrine into a deep chasm, killing himself.
In a recent interview on 7th Rule podcast (via Trek Movie), Strange New Worlds writer and co-executive producer Davy Perez reveals that Horak will return to the show. Hemmer is definitely gone, though Perez acknowledges that "flashbacks," could be a possibility. However, Hemmer's death doesn't impact Horak's involvement with Star Trek. Read what Perez said about Horak below.
"The thing we’re allowed to say is that Bruce Horak… his relationship with Trek is not over. We really love him. And Star Trek has a long tradition of reusing actors. There are plenty of people that you fall in love with and you’re like, 'Well, they were an alien, they could be another alien, they could be without the makeup because they were an alien.' So whatever it is in the future, we know his relationship with Star Trek is not over."
Perez understands that Star Trek has reused actors many times over for several different characters if the need ever presented itself. Majel Barrett, who played Number One in the Star Trek: The Original Series pilot, "The Cage," returned later as series regular Nurse Chapel. She also lent her voice for many Federation computer vocalizations throughout the years, up until Star Trek: Voyager. Barrett also returned to Star Trek as Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother for both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Since Hemmer is an Aenar of Andor, an alien species that required a vast amount of makeup to play, Horak can return to Star Trek as a human if need be. Brent Spiner played the synthetic life form Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a character who was covered in a coat of tan makeup, giving him an odd appearance. However, Spiner has returned to play six additional characters within the vast Star Trek universe. Due to the franchise's need for new actors as more and more unique characters are introduced, Horak will most definitely have his chance to return to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for season 2, if not also for a role on another series.
Source: 7th Rule (via Trek Movie)