With Lower Decks ending today, the next entry for the franchise arrives in just over a month with the release of the Star Trek: Section 31 movie, which will stream on Paramount+ in January (and Skyshowtime in February). And today Paramount+ released some comments from the movie’s director Olatunde Osunsanmi, where he dropped some hints about the movie, which stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh.
Big stakes, adding a new flavor to Trek, and more
In the Section 31, Michelle Yeoh reprises her Star Trek: Discovery role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou who joins Section 31, a secret division of Starfleet. According to the brief synopsis: “Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.” Today Paramount+ released their “View From the Peak” press preview for what’s coming to the streaming service in January and this included a brief interview with Olatunde Osunsanmi. Here is what he had to say…
With Star Trek: Section 31 being the first movie in the expanded universe made for streaming on Paramount+, what can fans expect in terms of the stakes of this group’s mission?
We tried to come out and go big. Big stakes emotionally, big stakes for the characters in our story. In comparison to many other series that have come in this era (because we all love to compare!), the stakes are as profound as any that we’ve seen, but with a particular character driven twist that I hope will surprise and delight people who watch the movie.
In the film, Michelle Yeoh’s character (Emperor Philippa Georgiou) must confront the sins of her past in order to accomplish their mission. What can you share about her journey in this film and reuniting with Michelle to bring this fun, complex character back?
Part of what makes this movie so unique is that it is tied inextricably to Georgiou. She’s got a fantastic backstory, which is epic in its breadth. It spans time and space in ways that most characters don’t have the opportunity to explore – like Christmas morning presents for our audience. Having the opportunity to work with Michelle again has been pure, unmitigated joy. However amazing you think it might be to work with her, multiply it by ten, and you will then understand the feeling!
What are you most excited for audiences to see in this new film (without giving any spoilers)?
I’m excited for viewers to experience a hard-hitting, action-packed and emotional journey through a part of the Star Trek Universe that hasn’t been explored before. It’s a new flavor of ice cream, another color of the rainbow that is a fresh fit in this universe. And that crucially, requires no prior knowledge of Star Trek to get into it. You can hop right in, understand everything that’s going on, and go for the ride.
Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 (Paramount+)
Tunde and the cast talk Section 31 origins and setting
Section 31 also stars Omari Hardwick (Power), Kacey Rohl (Hannibal), Sam Richardson (Ted Lasso), Sven Ruygrok (One Piece), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Humberly Gonzalez (Ginny & Georgia) and James Hiroyuki Liao (Barry). Miku Martineau (Kate) portrays a young Philippa Georgiou. At NYCC in October director Olatunde Osunsanmi and Rob Kazinsky (Zeph), Kacey Rohl (Rachel Garrett), and Omari Hardwick (Alok Sahar) talked Reed Pop’s official post-panel show about the movie, and they just released that Popverse video this week.
In addition to talking about how the movie was developed and what fun they had doing fight scenes with Michelle Yeoy, there was some discussion of the setting for the movie. We now know the movie is set primarily in the so-called lost era of the early 24th century, but the discussion confirms the film will include multiple time periods, hinting that Hardwick’s long-lived Alok could pop up at various times.
Check it out below.
January on Paramount+, February on SkyShowtime
Star Trek: Section 31 will premiere on Friday, January 24, 2025 on Paramount+ in the U.S. and international markets where the service is available. It will debut in SkyShowtime markets in Europe on February 7. TrekMovie is still trying to confirm releases in other international markets.
ICYMI, here is the official trailer released earlier this month….
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Maybe twist will be Cumberkhan is the big bad behind it all.. (whatever it is)
You know that’s not going to happen. Bringing back Cumberbatch as Khan would’ve been the first thing they mentioned the second this thing went into production and would’ve marketed it for months. Or at the very least included in the trailer just like Seven and Data were in the first season of Picard.
It is funny but weird how every production out there you try to tie it to the Kelvin movies. Apparently you really like them, but with the exception of one reference in both Discovery and Prodigy that at least acknowledge the universe’s existence, it’s very obvious anything related directly to the Kelvin movies will probably only happen in another Kelvin production itself at this point. And we see how much of a priority that is these days (which means none at all). But it’s been 7 years since Discovery arrived and multiple shows since, but there doesn’t seem to be an appetite to include those movies outside of vague references in this era of Trek.
Frankly both Star Trek and Star Wars are in the same conundrum right now. They are doing “ok” on TV but failing miserably in theaters. I mean Yeoh is an Oscar winner. The first female Asian best actress Oscar winner to boot. If she can’t bring Trek back to theaters I don’t see anyone else, even Shatner, doing so. The point being save for that one time you mention in DISCO, Kelvin doesn’t exist on TV so I am quite sure it is effectively dead now.
Bro, are you serious? You want white Khan back????? The movie already looks bad enough as it is but let’s make the meltdown even bigger. We can go one more step of bad ideas and have the movie taking place inside a holodeck with Riker and Troi looking on.
If there was a time for Riker to end a program early, this would be it.
It’s not Khan. It’s a new flavour of ice cream. That’s the twist.
Why? just why? WHYYYYYYY!!!!!
You know, instead of telling us this in an interview, what would’ve been an even BETTER idea is to show us in the actual trailer, the one that is meant to excite fans instead of repel many of them as the last two did.
I just don’t understand why some things get better promoted than others even though they are all being made by the same people. The (many) problems with the trailer to this movie is it doesn’t actually tell us anything what the movie is about. All we see are the new characters, hanging out in a nightclub and per usual, they have to stop some major threat that will destroy billions of lives. But that’s as basic as it can get.
What is wrong giving a line about the actual mission and not just ‘we need you to go on a mission’. Look how Picard season 3 handled their trailer. We knew that it started with Picard needing to go rescue Beverly and that the main villain motives involved Picard for some reason. That still told us very little to the bigger story but we at least knew the inciting incident in the freaking trailer, which the GOOD ones do. The interview says the film is tied directly to Georgiou, but they did absolutely nothing in the trailer to make that clear. It just sounds like a mission they need her skills for but that it’s not personal in any way.
And it’s great to hear we may get other time periods. At least that is something the trailer did show since we know we’re going to see a younger Georgiou rise to power. But if that means something more than a flashback, then great. Again, would’ve been nice to convey that in the trailer somewhere.
I get your point but as he says the movie doesn’t require you to know much about Star Trek to watch it. I do tend to think they mean it. They really want other people to watch this movie. I get that. I really do. However, I am just not convinced that there is a huge audience dying to see a Star Trek movie that isn’t already a Star Trek fan. So to your point I think they should just appeal to the fan base that makes it possible and try to convince more of us to watch it. Cause so far it’s been a tough sell. I will definitely tune in but it’s a low bar for them to leap over for sure.
Are you sure that the movie doesn’t require us to know less about Star Trek to watch it?
I know he says that. But that gives me even more pause. It makes me thing they are reinventing what S31 is just to bring in new audiences which is pretty much the norm for any of the new live action Trek series.
I read somewhere that the issues surrounding Picards season 1 and season 2 were because Paramount execs said that there was “too much Star Trek” in Star Trek. Paramount has been trying to turn Star Trek into Star Wars since You can still make Star Trek for a modern audience and maintain a tie to the foundation that was laid. SNW to a degree has managed to do that. (Some would argue the opposite and I understand that).
My issue with Section 31 is that this is not Section 31. It is not about a group of ragtag misfits its about an organization that protected the Federation in the shadows for 200 years and only a handful of people in the Federation including the President knew about it.
This movie should have been about Ash Tyler and pivotol moments in Trek history. As a fan will I watch it? Sure, because I am a fan but I am skeptical about it because the current gatekeepers of Trek don’t have clue.
That fake fanboy energy that allowed JJ Abrams to do irrevocable damage to the Star Wars IP, is now impacting Star Trek and as a lifelong fan, I don’t like it. Star Trek will never be Star Wars. The DNA for it was created over 50 years ago. On some level in all of its incarnations before 2009, that DNA was present.
When Ron Moore took over Battlestar Galactica, he maintained the DNA of Glen Larson and created a brilliant show that if we are honest runs circles around The Kurtzman era of Trek. They should have called Ron Moore. What about Generations you say? Well, listen to his DVD commentary on the film, he realizes he made some mistakes.
I feel like Deep Space Nine gets a lot of disrespect and I don’t like it. I got a feeling that this is a one and done. Star Trek better pay attention to what has happened to Star Wars. It got very ugly. I hope that Skydance hires a new caretaker. JJ Abrams has infected too much of pop culture. Just my opinion.
The fact that they mistreated Moore during what amounted to a couple of weeks on VOYAGER and then didn’t call him at all for ENT — a show he was probably built to do and to do properly — to me said that it must be like the powers that were and the powers that be are all afraid of having strong opinions thrust in their faces and well-argued.
I’m a big fan of Moore’s DS9 work and much of BSG, though I haven’t seen FOR ALL MANKIND yet and won’t watch OUTLANDER. But to be honest, I think the miscues on GEN, while enormous, aren’t as annoying as the bad calls on FC, which it took me many years to be able to watch all the way through. I’m not blaming him specifically, as it was a team effort that involved the ‘lesser forms’ of Berman and Braga, but he was a party to these things, so doesn’t get a free pass.
Do yourself a favor and watch For all Mankind.
I will, I will! I just need to plan out the month or two I’m going to order Apple for, so I can get maximum effect. Figure on watching all of FOR ALL MANKIND plus SEVERANCE, but have also been keeping track of various older movies that seem to be Apple only for streaming right now. When I get a critical mass number, we’re going to suspend other streamers and just go all-in, but I will see MANKIND (and I expect it to be very very good … I wrote articles about the first two seasons, so I have a built-up interest in it!)
Where did you read that? (Regarding the first thing you said up there.)
but 70s BSG was blatantly trying to rip off ‘star wars’, which in turn was a mix of so many SF stories, pulp fiction, genres, b/w serials…
Stylistically it ripped sw, but content wise it was its own thing limited and corny and sometimes embarrassing as it was.
‘by your command’
The Borg should have used that line when following Locutus’ directive to ‘make it so.’
100% truth
“You know, instead of telling us this in an interview, what would’ve been an even BETTER idea is to show us in the actual trailer, the one that is meant to excite fans instead of repel many of them as the last two did.”
This, yes.
I’m pretty sure the director doesn’t get to decide what the trailer looks like. IMO it makes sense that he’d frame it a little differently, particularly when talking to a Trek website.
Yeah. TV is not a director’s medium. Writers/producers have all the power.
That has evolved a little bit. Starting with THE X-FILES, I noticed that mainstay directors Kim Manners and Rob Bowman always had producer credits on their eps, and I assume that guarantees them a little more than the first assembly. In fact if TNG had been more generous to Bowman, trek might have really benefited from his presence, because I gotta say, his FILES eps are usually very good and always very visually interesting.
Still hope this turns into a series.
Are they not doing sit-down interviews, just parceling out these same comments for all sites and mags to use?
I talk to a fair number of directors for my second job, and usually they are excited to talk about visual influences and the like — typically they all cite Alan Pakula movies shot by Gordon Willis in the 1970s, plus Willis’ GODFATHER films and the look of THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR or THE FRENCH CONNECTION (the latter two shot by Owen Roizman, who was an idol of mine when I was much younger, because he could do everything — in the span of just a couple of years, he did TAPS, ABSENCE OF MALICE, TRUE CONFESSIONS and TOOTSIE, all utterly unique-looking.) Either that or they talk about painters and photographers who inspired their visual approach.
Even when you have PR people listening in on the call to make sure no plot points are blown (which is pretty much always in recent years), most interviewees are big on anecdotes, but not seeing a lot of that with CurrentTrek either. There are filmmakers who are skillful in delivering the party line while also being very entertaining, like Frakes, but I’m thinking that must be the exception to the rule in this franchise right now.
Can’t see how these seemingly very managed comments will create much excitement, and you’d figure the PR folk would realize that part of their job is engendering interest instead of chasing it away. Now if you have product that looks terrific to start with — you know, a trailer that is great like the one for BODY HEAT, to go back in time to a real wowser — the thing can probably sell itself regardless of what is said to hype or promote it. But just saying ‘anybody can watch it without knowing star trek’ isn’t exactly the kind of comment that engenders interest.
I think all the streaming services are so utterly terrified of hurting sign-ups, renewals, and churn flow that this messaging is heavily managed. And since the media companies are all basically tech companies now, that sort of message control is a product of making the company more efficient. It is a factory where workers produce visual content and serve as extensions of management/the brand.
They know their targeted Trek audience will watch anything with Star Trek slapped on it and so they just have to aim for anodyne public comments with a few key words sprinkled in to activate enthusiasm. They are selling Lunchables.
That’s a very astute observation, but it still makes me feel awfully sad. It’s like we’re having to digest AI-style product even before AI takes over (in any or every sense of the word.)
But then again, we’re barely over a decade out from INTO DARKNESS’ early promo that heralded:
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
Still waiting to see that fleet get detonated, folks … (BTW, I got that quote off an old trekmovie story, because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misimagining the ‘detonated the fleet’ bit.)
I’ve no doubt he’s a pleasure to work with on set, but Osunsanmi‘s tics as a director always have me rolling my eyes. You’d probably get some proper insights in a one on one as nowadays everything is so sanitized and cautious.
Yeah, I get why they say “anybody can watch it,” to appeal to the masses. However, it makes groan every time!
It’s awful. Surprise!
My body is ready.
weird but ok
Officially the 2nd-most thing I’m not looking forward to next year. Unlike the first one, I’ll watch this one, however. Not expecting much, hoping for the best though (as to both).
Ok, it’s killing me, what’s the first?
Ahh, “crucially”.
The more they talk about this, the more it sounds like just a generic sci-fi straight-to-video movie that I wouldn’t sign up for a service to see. Of course, the trailer makes it look like most of the movie takes place in a nightclub, so my expectations were already low. Not really a surprise that it appears the goal was to make sure there was nothing Star Trek about it.
That was the line that had me worried as well. I get wanting to bring new audiences into your media, and Star Trek can be a tough nut to crack when it comes to that, since there is a LOT to take in.
It’s why the Star Wars sequel trilogy shafted the Extended universe that existed to start over. I hated it for that, and I hate the idea of homogenizing Star Trek down to basic action Sci-Fi to encourage a few new watchers.
There are always going to be fans that are unhappy with new things. It’s the nature of fandoms, but there comes a point where if you trash the current fans enough… well then you as an exec can go to the board and say it wasn’t your fault your new ideas failed!
But as a fan, we just get stuck. Stuck with stories we love, sure, but wanting for more. Maybe in another 20 years the pendulum will swing back on Star Trek and Star Wars and we get something truly fulfilling.
As a fellow fan, I am concerned that this chase for the new audience will mean that the future of Star Trek will be limited to only mindless comedies, over the top action and musicals. Lower Decks wasn’t even over with, and they announced yet another comedy.
I am really hoping the new management does a shakeup of epic proportions with the people greenlighting some of this stuff.
I hope the Surprise Twist is that it is good. That would be a twist no one expects.
HA!
The twist is the cyborg guy is V’ger.
Sure, and Ilia is his girlfriend who enters singing ‘delta dawn, where’s that headband you put on.’
LOL. Just a reminder for everyone, “V’Ger” still hasn’t fallen into a black hole yet because NASA is still in communications with it.
yeah, but in TMP’s case, ‘you are number six.’
HAHA. same. TBH I was hoping the surprise twist is Bashir somehow but this works too.
I already had almost no interest in watching Section 31: The Adolf Chronicles, but even less so now if that was even possible.
I always have to make clear I hope this movie wins me over. If I can finally enjoy an entire season of Discovery or two Neelix Voyager episodes in a row, then anything is possible. But nothing in the trailers has so far so I’m very very worried.
Any chance the surprise twist is a time travelling Bashir?
The Star Trek brand is badly tarnished already. This looks and sounds like generic Sci fi trash like Rebel Moon.
Hollywood as a whole jumped the shark a long time a go. The days of Growing the beard are over,
This wreck of a show looks about as appealing as a pub toilet at closing time.
Wow, way to insult a pub toilet!
Anything related to the Kelvin Universe and Discovery itself was a HUGE goose egg 🥚
Why keep pushing the same calamity of characters and overall essence of a series that’s been nothing clusterfuck after another is utterly mindless and brain numbingly pathetic.
I was expecting more. What I saw out of the two trailers was trek as its worse. I was expecting something more serious. Im passing on this one. Awaiitng Season 3 of Strange New Worlds
A new flavor again. The original Star Trek flavor isn’t well enough it seems. I begin to wonder why all the new shows are actually still wearing the name Star Trek when it has almost nothing to do with what Gene Roddenberry had in mind. Is it really simply to use the name because it sells well? I mean the shows would work well for other people out of star trek very much I suppose
I’ve gone from excited to meh back to excited. I hope they continue to do new and different stuff, and I hope this connects with an audience that has never been interested in Star Trek before
Every time a director needs to say things like: ‘new flavor’, ‘person x or y like you never seen him/her before’, ‘special twist’, ‘something different’, ‘not the same’ etc. It always ALWAYS sucks because it’s just something else with an existing label slapped onto it. The trailer is so extremely generic with (surprise!) the bigger threat ever and just action. I have yet to see any emotional journey. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to watch it. I’ll wait for the reviews of the reviewers I trust have the same opinions as me. But the fact is more or less a spin-off of Discovery doesn’t bode well. I just stopped watching that after season 3. But…I hope I’ll get surprised, but so far there is absolutely no reason for me to be positive about is.
“ In comparison to many other series that have come in this era (because we all love to compare!), the stakes are as profound as any that we’ve seen” – when the stakes are always big…they are never big.
The best of Trek never had galactic stakes – the best of Trek was always when the stakes were at a personal level (even in WoK – the stakes aren’t about Genesis – it’s Spock and Kirk)
No thanks.
Anything Star Trek related I am going to give a try. But I am not hopeful on this. Anything Section 31 related I want in the 25th century with Bashir involved.
Im honestly curious. Are TPTB even reading this site? Because at least 95% of the comments on here are negative towards this movie. Star Trek has always been a franchise that relies on it’s fans to survive. If you can’t even get us interested, you have a big problem. If the first Asian Female Best Oscar winner can’t get you interested, you havea WAY bigger problem. IMHO the only life action Trek in the new era that has been any good was SNW season 1. S2 blew it and I am not expecting S3 to right the ship, literally and figuratively speaking. I think this is the first time in my life that I am honestly thinking that it may not be worth my time to even try with Trek anymore. I still will as I stated before, but this is the last chance I am giving it.
Well said. I am feeling like Star Trek has completely jumped the shark and is no longer something I can connect with on any level. Which is kind of surprising as I had been a fan for decades. It really isn’t what it used to be in both intellectual quality and message.
SNW was doing great the first season, but for some reason they decided that wasn’t working and needed to go heavy with the gimmicks. I’m not even sure what that show is supposed to be about anymore.
I keep hoping they will produce something I finally connect with in this new era of Trek, but so far it feels like I am being pushed away from it. My expectations of this new season of Discovery disguised as a movie are pretty low. Maybe it will surprise me.