We got a teaser trailer and some details for the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 streaming movie at Comic-Con last month, but we still don’t know much about the characters beyond the return of Michelle Yeoh, reprising her Discovery role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou. Now one of the actors is talking a bit more about his character.
Section 31 is “spy-fi” take on Trek with canon connections
One of the more familiar faces in the cast for Section 31 is Emmy-winning actor and comedian Sam Richardson. He was a guest Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast and was asked about joining Star Trek, initially talking about his excitement in getting the role:
“In [Section 31] I had a really great time. I’m a Star Trek fan my whole life, so I know every iteration of it, the motion pictures, the Shatner movies, the Picard movies… Loved the J.J. Abrams movie, the “2009” as we call it.”
From SDCC we learned that the Section 31 characters working with Georgiou can be described as “misfits” and “outcasts” and that Richardson’s character is named “Quasi” [note, spelling may not be exact] and he is a Chameloid, a shapeshifting species introduced in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Richardson offered Dax Shepard a bit more detail on his role and the historical context for the franchise:
“So I play a physicist shapeshifter, what’s called a Chameloid. This is the second time there’s ever been a Chameloid in Star Trek. The first time was Iman in Star Trek VI… It’s actually very funny. With Iman, it’s like this is a shapeshifter, you want to look good, ‘Yeah, I’ll make myself Iman.’ And then for me, it’s like, ‘Oh good, I’m going to make myself Sam Richardson.’ [laughs]. I’m going to accept it.”
So beyond having a good sense of humor about himself and Trek awareness, we learn that Richardson’s character is a physicist. Any good covert team needs a science guy, and so that may be his role for Georgiou’s team of misfits. During the SDCC panel, executive producer Alex Kurtzman noted it is “very, very useful to be a shapeshifter in the spy world,” so we can expect to see Quasi do some transforming.
Sam Richardson at San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+)
The other supporting character we do know something about is Kacey Rohl, who is playing a younger version of Rachel Garrett, captain of the Enterprise-C in the classic TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Rohl has said her role will be “straddling the divide” and she’ll be “trying to marry the Starfleet way of doing things and the Section 31 ways of doing things.” Other members of the cast include Omari Hardwick (Power), Sven Ruygrok (One Piece), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Humberly Gonzalez (Ginny & Georgia) and James Hiroyuki Liao (Barry). Joe Pingue plays an interesting looking character named Dada Noe, who was featured in the first image (below) released for the streaming movie earlier this year.
Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou and Joe Pingue as Dada Noe in Star Trek: Section 31 (Photo: Jan Thijs/Paramount+)
ICYMI: trailer
You can see Richardson’s character put his humor and science-y skills to work in the trailer during a space action bit when he surmises the situation as, “It’s going to be bumpy and bad.” In case you missed it, here is the trailer again
Star Trek: Section 31 was written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. It will be available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. in early 2025 and in all international markets where the service is available.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
It’s pretty cool that they brought one of the OG shapeshifter species back. I remember feeling equal parts, intrigue, creepers and attraction for Iman’s character in ST: The Undiscovered Country, re-watching over and over back in the day on VHS. The fact the his character is a physicist is fun. Who doesn’t love a funny scientist.
IMAN was great in that role, he had a lot to live up too. But I remember him from Veep and I totally think he is up to it
“It’s going to be bumpy and bad.”
That, I fear, may end up being how Section 31 turns out. But I’ll keep an open mind about it. Cool to see a Chameloid, though.
Totally agree. I seen the trailer 5 times now and and it only makes me more angry lol.
But yeah still keeping an open mind of course.
Why do you keep rewatching it if “it only makes [you] more angry”?
Lol I know. The truth is because I was hoping to like it more but that ended up being futile. And I watched it the first three times the day it dropped like that first hour.
But I do tell myself it’s just a trailer. And the only other one I truly hated in modern Star Trek was the infamous Beyond teaser trailer. However I ended up really liking the movie itself and my favorite out of the three so I’m still keeping an open mind.
But maybe moral of the story stop trying to make these productions feel like GOTG rip offs. It really does them no favors.
It is a truly horrible trailer, imo.
Because people keep telling us “Oh just re-watch it later when you have had time to think about it, It won’t seem as bad the more times you watch it.”
It’s still bad
BTW what are your thoughts on it? I hope you liked it more than me but that’s not hard lol.
I see what kind of vibe they were going for with the trailer. I have no idea if I’m going to like the movie but I’m basically keeping a wait-and-see attitude. Not really expecting anything profound but hopefully it will be entertaining.
Fair enough and agree!
Yeah It does not feel like Trek at all, but I am willing to see what happens
Same feeling here. I’ll be tuning in, though. I really hope it’s something I’m going to want to see more than once. Fingers crossed.
I do not know how this will turn out, but the quality of actors here is undeniable
Although I really do like Sam Richardson this still looks so soooo bad. I can not stewss how much I loath that trailer and I was originally a big supporter of tgis movie. Hopefully I will be proven utterly wrong.
The trailer was godawful. I can only hope it’s just a case of bad editing.
It just felt so tone deaf. It felt like it was trying so hard NOT to remind us it’s actually Star Trek. If you are trying this hard to make it look and feel like something else then just don’t call it Star Trek, problem solved.
Again I go back to what Anthony and Laurie said about it on their podcast and if it didn’t have the name Star Trek in the title they wouldn’t even bother watching it. That says a lot coming from them.
But hopefully it’s just a bad trailer and the movie will be good.
That’s what I am not understanding with this desperate grab for a new audience for Star Trek by trying to not look like Star Trek at all. I mean, say they succeed, will this new audience only be interested in Star Trek if it doesn’t resemble Star Trek? I also have been asking the same about this heavy push into “Comedy Trek” too.
Will a traditional Trek show even interest them and keep them around?
I guess they are trying to keep Star Trek alive for the next generation (no pun intended) but this is not how you do it either. It feels more desperate to me than anything. And as you said is this the direction they feel they have to KEEP going in? I hope not because they obviously know it will just run off the main base of fans.
I have no idea what the answer is and as much as they keep trying to go ‘younger’ it just doesn’t feel to be working. I love LDS and PRO but I don’t think either of those shows have gotten a lot of younger people to watch them either. Yes, SOME,, obviously and Prodigy at least hit the top 10 kids lists in a few countries on Netflix, but not enough to be successful without the main base. And at least those feel like Star Trek in every way that matters.
And I admit, I now worry a bit about SFA because nearly everyone just assumes it’s going to be some Gen Z/CW light hearted show. I really do feel we are going to get a very Trek-y like show. But I also thought we were getting a very Section 31 type movie and not the off beat comic book version this trailer seems to suggest. So part of me worries a bit more about that show even though the cast so far is pretty awesome and made up of a few weightier actors; so fingers crossed I guess.
As for this, as said hopefully the next trailer will show us something very different and actual Star Trek. If it’s just more night club stuff and people hanging out on generic looking ships talking like they are on Buffy.,this is going to be a very divisive product even if it turns out decent.
How many times did a movie reveal a bad trailer but ended up being a good movie? Not many to my knowledge. If anything, the reverse is more likely.
Agreed, not many at all. One of the fewer exceptions for me was Star Trek Beyond which I mentioned on this thread. I loathed that original teaser trailer like many but the second trailer knocked it out of the park IMO. That really should’ve been the first one though.
I’m hoping the second trailer will have that kind of turnaround but we’ll see. The biggest problem is you already have a product half the fanbsse was already skeptical of along with the main character who is also very divisive. So for them, it really needed to persuade them its worth signing up for and I have no idea if it remotely did that.
All I can say is it didn’t for me and I actually supported the movie itself even if I’m still not a big MU Georgiou fan.
But others seem to really like it though which is great for them..I however remain very skeptical.
YAAAAS. Slay queenz! It’s giving edge. It’s giving brat. It’s giving modern. I’m hot to go watch this. Good luck, babe!
This is low-key accurate.
In a vacuum, this still could be a good film. But honestly, I wish the modern Trek showrunners wouldn’t get such a hard on for Section 31. They are just too much in your face in modern Trek. The mystique is gone.
open mind to the movie but have very low expectations and very little vested in whether its good or not
I’m curious, is the og writer of the first DS9 section 31 ep getting royalties for all of this?
That’s a good question! They couldn’t use T’Pau in Star Trek: Enterprise without paying Theodore Sturgeon’s estate, so the main character was named “T’Pol” instead. Maybe characters are different from bureaucratic entities?
Contracts may have changed between the 60s (Sturgeon’s TOS work) and the 90s (DS9). However, I remember reports that they first wanted to reuse Nick Locarno on Voyager before renaming him to Tom Paris (but still keeping the actor) to avoid having to pay the writer of the TNG episode.
On the other hand, shows like DS9 use a writers room to develop the seasons together as a group so whoever wrote the screenplay for the first episode introducing Section 31 may not actually be the one who came up with the idea.
Interesting. Thanks!
The writers credited for the 1st ds9 ep with garak didn’t even write his scenes as I recall, maybe Pete fields created him? But I think the credited writers would get any royalties, so how wrong-headed is that?
I think the bit about Locarno has been denied. They based Paris on him but didn’t want Locarno’s baggage.
Of course, Lower Decks had a good time with that.
Ya thats what I was thinking too
“With Iman, it’s like this is a shapeshifter, you want to look good, ‘Yeah, I’ll make myself Iman.’ And then for me, it’s like, ‘Oh good, I’m going to make myself Sam Richardson.’”
Dude isn’t a bad looking guy, but yeah, that’s hilarious.
This movie just looks embarrassing. For every step NuTrek does right, it goes 3 steps backwards with something like this.
How do you manage to create a trailer but the only thing Star Trek in it is just in the title? And the dialogue is so cringe worthy it belongs on a CW show.
Who thought this trailer was a good idea? A bad trailer is what killed off the reboot movies when you had Kirk doing jumps off a motorcycle to a Beastie boys soundtrack. How far we dropped from TMP to the likes of that.
Fans want to feel intrigued and curious, not insulted.
The origin of the emperor part seemed interesting. The rest makes it look like the movie mostly takes place in a night club with the emperor making cooing noises while she is being told what a bad B**** she is. They had to have had better footage to choose from than that. I would hope so anyway.
I think there are people who are more interested in “leaving their mark” on Star Trek than actually making anything that resembles it.
Sadly, I think you’re right. It sucks that anyone feels that way.
I also agree with your last statement. There is probably someone at the top who wants to ‘shake things up’ and go a different way. You could argue Lower Decks did exactly the same thing, the difference being LDS truly feels like Star Trek in every way shape and form. You can certainly dislike the tone of the show but it is ultimately a love letter to all things Star Trek.
This just feels like someone trying to make it be something else and just calling it Star Trek. NEVER a smart way to go.
It’s obvious they are trying to win over a different audience and demographic with this trailer, but it just feels a bit desperate IMO. They are trying so hard to feel ‘contemporary’ it just feels flat instead.
Star Trek is never going to be the ‘cool’ show, it just isn’t. Trying to throw in contemporary music and everyone talk like they are in a TikTok video isn’t going to win over the people they are trying to get. Star Trek will always be that nerdy franchise that doesn’t get the same people talking like they do Marvel. Yeah it sucks but that’s just how it is.
That’s the difference with comic book shows and movies today, it’s now something both the ‘nerdy’ and ‘cool’ kids can enjoy equally. Star Trek sadly still leans way more to the former than the latter. And of course I mean ‘kids’ figuratively since way more people over 40 watches it than under 30 these days judging by all the conversation about it online. I get that’s who they are probably trying to get but like what happened with Beyond this is not going to fool them either.
Hard to watch. I hope I’m wrong but it looks like it’ll be a bomb. Thank Goodness for SNW!
I just hope that know-nothing executives don’t let the failure of one Trek color their impression of others.
I mean, I really hope it’s good. But just in case…
I’m keeping an open mind about the Section 31 movie. Love Michelle and will see the movie when released.
Regarding Section 31, I’m wondering now if there are episodes of the Star Trek series, any of them, including TOS, where we could recon it to say that HAD to be Section 31 thing pulling the strings.
The concept of Section 31 in the Star Trek universe(s) is fascinating — I’m curious if the organization will be more defined beyond “they do the secret dirty work” type thing. In other words, Section 31 might be a very honorable endeavor but needs to color outside the lines (and sometimes do bad things) for the greater good. VERY curious about this movie…
One thing of which I am certain — this movie will leave many threads to be picked up in another movie (or series)
Section 31 was introduced in DS9 and featured in ENT and Discovery. So it’s going to be obvious after that point. Before, you’re basically be looking into TOS and TNG. (VOY was on the other side of the galaxy.) The first thing that comes to mind is Colonel’s West’s extraction plan in TUC and then the whole assassination plan, except the latter really doesn’t seem like Section 31, and of course the whole thing was basically cut. I really can’t think of much else.
ENTERPRISE INCIDENT could be s31-driven, and I think there may have been novels exploring this.
Right! Yes, there was a whole series of follow-up novels, including some very deep-cover spies on Romulus.
I’ve always assumed Colonel West and Admiral Cartwright, in Star Trek VI, were Section 31. I’m willing to bet others were.