The last time there was a Star Trek movie was in 2016 with Star Trek Beyond, the third film in JJ Abrams’ reboot universe. While there has been a lot of haggling around a fourth movie, this next Star Trek feature will be where the franchise has found its greatest success: on streaming. Paramount+ has debuted a new trailer for Star Trek: Section 31, an action-packed film that finds Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh returning as fan-favorite character Emperor Philippa Georgiou.
Debuting last night at CCXP Brazil (I really need to go next year), the trailer shows Emperor Philippa Georgiou taking charge as part of Section 31, a secret organization within Starfleet that does the dirty, covert jobs necessary to protect the Federation. Yeoh’s character first appeared in Star Trek: Discovery, while Section 31 debuted way back in an episode of Deep Space Nine in 1998.
Also in the cast are Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Robert Kazinsky, James Hiroyuki Liao, Sven Ruygrok, Humberly Gonzalez, Joe Pingue, and Miku Martineau.
The film is directed by Star Trek veteran Olatunde Osunsanmi who helmed episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and also directed the 2009 sci-fi thriller The Fourth Kind if anyone remembers that one. The script is by Craig Sweeney, a producer and writer on the show, as well. The original plan had been to do a series following Section 31, but those plans changed when priority went to Strange New Worlds.
They showed a lot of footage from this at Comic-Con last summer and I remember the audience going nuts for it. I’m out of the loop with this franchise but this looks like fun to me, and certainly fits with the action-heavy approach favored by Alex Kurtzman.
Star Trek: Section 31 hits Paramount+ on January 24th.
