Here, let me clear that up:

So there's a new Spock and-huh? No, not Zachary Quinto, a different Spock, but still the same Spock. Yeah, you might want to buckle your nerd belt, we're in for some chop.

I...I told you to buckle up and you-you never listen to me...

Pictured: a quarter of Ethan Peck's genes.

This new Spock will be played by Ethan Peck, the grandson of Gregory Peck which, acting talent is hereditary, right? Anyway, he's the former star of the TV version of Ten Things I Hate About You where he played the Heath Ledger role. Yeah, I didn't see it either, but then I'm out of touch. Peck will be playing Spock on season two of Star Trek: Discovery which is set ten years before the original Star Trek but roughly around the same time as the Star Trek reboot movies. With me?

Huh? Who left this picture of creepy
Rogue One CG Tarkin here?

No, of course you're not and neither am I, but that's ok. We're going to power through. So in its first season Discovery named dropped Spock a few times because the main character, Michael Burnham is his human foster sister and a lot of the marketing for season two has revolved around the idea that it will be delving into that relationship and since you can't just CG a deceased actor into a prequel without it looking like unnerving, Polar Express-ish nightmare fuel, a new Spock had to be cast. Hence, Ethan Peck.

Above: The white guy they got to
play an Indian guy who was first played
by an Hispanic guy. Because time travel.

You're probably wondering why they didn't just get Zachary Quinto back since we're already used to him as the new young Spock and since-wait you weren't wondering that? Well these are important questions that need answering. Shame on you. Anyway, although Quinto's Spock is theoretically the same person, he's from an alternate timeline where Eric Bana murdered Kirk's dad and caused a temporal chain reaction that turned Khan into Benedict Cumberbatch. And no, we're not going into that again, just trust me on that one.

And that's how Biff Tannen
became mayor of Hill Valley.

So Quinto's Spock is still Spock but he's not exactly the same Spock that Leonard Nimoy played because he's had different life experiences. Star Trek: Discovery meanwhile is set in the Prime Universe where Eric Bana didn't travel through time and implode his home planet, along with his mom who was played by Winona Ryder (yeah, that movie was kind of bananas), so Ethan Peck's Spock is just a younger version of the same Spock from the original TV show. And don't worry, the blood oozing from your ear is completely normal.

Zachary Quinto, seen here
with a look of smouldering
intensity, is an actual actor.

So that's the shaky, appropriately technobabble, in-universe reason Star Trek: Discovery needed to recast Spock again, less than a decade after the reboot movies did it. But simpler reason for the a Spock is that Zachary Quinto is a successful, famous person and probably not interested in working for TV money. And this seems to be a running theme. A disagreement over salary between Paramount and two of the famous, bearded white guys named Chris, that is Chris Pine who played Captain Kirk and Chris Hemsworth who played his Eric Bana-murdered dad, has likely just sunk any chance of another Trek movie featuring the J. J. Abrams series cast. And that's probably fine, if for no other reason than it's super confusing to explain to new viewers that Star Trek: Discovery is a prequel to the series that the movies are a soft, alt-universe reboot of.

"What? They changed the angle of the
nacel pylons? Who are they, Hitler?"

-Me, in my angrier,

more obsessive days

So what do I think of all this? Thanks, I'm glad I pretended you asked. I don't mind. Maybe I've matured as a fan. Like, I no longer fly off the handle about things like the Enterprise getting redesigned or whether or not Klingons have hair. The only trepidation I have is about the show relying too heavily on other Trek stuff. Season one drew from earlier series', but it usually took those ideas and went in a different direction, so if revisiting Spock adds something new that's fine as long as it doesn't detract from the rest of the cast.

As for the recast itself, like I said, I don't know much about Ethan Peck beyond what his IMDB page tells us, but he seems Spocky so far. And according to his twitter page he has the approval of Leonard Nimoy's family so sure, bring on the new old, yet younger Spock.

Pictured: Ethan Peck Vulcan saluting with Adam Nimoy and Terry Farrell. Yup, Spock's son
is married to Dax from DS9. Now you know some Star Trek trivia. And you can't unknown it.