Next Year, Michelle Yeoh’s Star Trek Thriller Will Reinvent The Franchise
Section 31 is aiming high.
The evil queen of numbers is back! Back in 2020, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) stepped into the Guardian of Forever in the 32nd Century and was sent back... somewhere. Since then, fans have been told that Georgiou would reappear in a spinoff series centered on Starfleet’s clandestine spy organization, Section 31. That spinoff show eventually morphed into a direct-to-streaming Paramount+ movie, which, is now actually happening.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Paramount+ dropped the first teaser trailer for the Section 31 movie, which features Georgiou in all her “bad b*tch” glory, a new crew, and some surprising callbacks to her origin in Star Trek’s Mirror Universe. Georgiou is in her brat era and the Section 31 trailer is probably most notable because it almost doesn’t feel like a hardcore Star Trek product. Instead, this standalone movie seems like something new for the franchise: a sci-fi action/spy thriller in which knowledge about Trek may not be required to enjoy the ride.
Section 31 trailer is nonstop Trek action
The first Section 31 teaser trailer begins in the past and in an alternate universe. Here, we see a younger version of Georgiou, now played by Miku Martineau. For those who never saw Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, this flashback seems to recap how Georgiou ascended to the throne in the past of the 23rd century in the Mirror Universe. For completists, this flashback also creates an opportunity for Section 31 to close a plot hole leftover from Discovery Season 3, in which we had learned that Georgiou harbored some deep-seated guilt about the demise of someone named “San.” This plot thread was briefly picked up by a Star Trek novel, though we don’t really know much about Georgoiu’s early life in the Mirror Universe prior to being brought into the Prime Universe by Michael Burnham.
But the primary action of Section 31 doesn’t seem too fixated on Georgoiu’s past — instead, it’s all about what looks like a heist-style movie with a group of rag-tag Starfleet agents, all operating in the decades before The Next Generation.
Section 31’s uncharted timeline
Kacey Rohl plays a deep-cut Star Trek character in Section 31.
All in all, the vibe of Section 31 could easily represent one of the better Riddick movies or a less self-indulgent Rebel Moon. In fact, during the panel, the movie was described as “Guardians of the Galaxy on steroids.” This is all to say, that the movie is clearly going for a broad audience, which, based on Yeoh’s wicked charm and the pacing of the trailer, just might work, even if audiences aren’t interested in Star Trek. In a pre-taped comment, Michelle Yeoh said: “If you guys like it we’ll do more of these movies.”
But the context of this show is also cleverly nestled into a part of the canon that hardcore Trek fans don’t know much about. As previously reported by Variety, one character in Georgiou’s merry band of Section 31 agents is known other than Rachel Garrett, the future captain of the USS Enterprise-C. Played by Tricia O'Neil in the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” this younger version of Garrett in Section 31 will played by Kacey Rohl, who we see in this trailer as an undercover operative, seemingly assigned by Starfleet to keep Georgiou in line. And because this is a younger Rachel Garrett, this means Section 31 has to take place in the early 24th century, well after the classic movies, but also decades before The Next Generation begins in the 2360s. The panel at San Diego Comic-Con also confirmed Sam Richardson’s character will be playing a Chameloid, a type of shapeshifter seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in the form of Martia, played by Iman.
With all of these developments, Georgiou’s journey is clearly going to get even bumpier than it was before. After originating in the 23rd century of the Mirror universe, crossing over to the Prime Univesre, and then traveling forward to the 32nd century, coming to the 24th century won’t exactly be a homecoming for Georgiou at all. Instead, like the vibe of this trailer, the setting and the world of Section 31 are, essentially for the Trek franchise, brand new.
In addition to Michelle Yeoh, Miku Martineau, and Kacey Rohl, Section 31 also stars Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao. It’s directed by longtime Discovery producer Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny.
Star Trek: Section 31 is expected to stream on Paramount+ in early 2025.
This article was originally published on
