The next big Trek release is a franchise first: the streaming movie Star Trek: Section 31, arriving on Paramount+ in January (and SkyShowtime in February). Development on the project was first announced back in 2019, but it took a while to get going and was finally announced as a streaming movie last year. Now the director is talking about how the project went through big changes along the way as well as what could come next.
The seventh time was the charm for Section 31
Development of the “Section 31” television series starring Michelle Yeoh was announced as a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery just as that series was kicking off its second season. A writers room was set up under the Discovery writer/producer team of Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, who were joined by Discovery writer Craig Sweeny. As other projects within the Trek universe moved forward, including Picard and Strange New Worlds, the Section 31 project struggled to get out of space dock and eventually Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt exited the Trek universe for greener pastures at Netflix to become showrunners of Sweet Tooth.
But executive producer Alex Kurtzman continued development with Craig Sweeny. Now we are learning more about this long road to the streaming movie in a new cover feature out today in the January issue of SFX Magazine. Executive producer and director Olatunde Osunsanmi reveals that only two things from the original pilot still remain: the character of Phillippa Georgiou (Yeoh) and a character named Alok. Tunde details how the project (and scripts) kept evolving:
“It has been retooled so much, the two stories are completely unrecognizable, and Craig Sweeny, the writer, has been in the middle of that [for] the whole process. He’s been in a situation to have written – I think – seven different iterations of this. When I say seven different iterations, the first iteration was six episodes of the first season of Section 31. The second iteration was another five episodes of Section 31 which were completely different than the previous iteration. Then the fourth, fifth and sixth were multiple pilots that were outlines, then we had the movie, and the movie itself went through a couple of iterations.”
In the Section 31 movie, Alok Sahar (Omari Hardwick) is the “mastermind” of the Section 31 team who seeks out Georgiou for a special mission outside the Federation. According to the official synopsis: “Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.” Section 31 also stars Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett, Sam Richardson as the Chameloid scientist Quasi, Robert Kazinsky as the mech suit-wearing Zeph, Sven Ruygrok as the (possibly) Vulcan or Romulan “Maniac” Fuzz, Humberly Gonzalez as the Deltan Melle, and Miku Martineau as young Philippa Georgiou.
Olatunde Osunsanmi on set with Robert Kazinsky (SFX/Paramount+)
More streaming movies?
It may have taken Paramount+ a while to get Section 31 going, but they are still doing better than Paramount Pictures, who hasn’t produced a theatrical movie release for the franchise since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. There have been suggestions that there could be more streaming movies as well, possibly spun off Section 31 or other Trek shows, past and present. Osunsanmi spoke directly to this possibility with SFX:
“Hopefully the fans love Section 31 and love this format, and we’re able to continue this format with other stories and be able to expand the universe so much faster, because it doesn’t have to all be television series. It can just be one pop, one pop, one pop. If the audience – the fans – they love it, the sky’s the limit with what we can do… I think I might get into a bit of trouble if I expand upon that. But I think as long as there’s love from the audience, there’s incredible fertile ground that was laid with Section 31 to continue to grow the franchise and grow the world. The door’s open.”
There is more on the Section 31 movie in the brand-new issue of SFX Magazine.
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.
Love from the Fans… Yeah, about that…
Anyways. Happy New year.
In the words of Robert Kazinsky from the same SFX issue, “I’m terrified of how it’s going to be received, because it’s not the Trek people want.”
I’m glad at least one of them knows.
but it could be the ST people need….
Looking forward to this.
YES! There is at least ONE of us out here!
Me too! I do feel sorry it didn’t make it to series, but I’m happy with any new Trek. I recently rewatched Discovery season 2 and I’m also sorry that Ash Tyler (and the actor) didn’t get what he was promissed.
You’re not alone! I’m very much looking forward to meeting the various characters from different species we haven’t seen for ages… Deltans, Chameloids, Cherons… bluu-haired Rachel Garret… There’s a lot to look forward to lore-wise…
I don’t care if it’s Fifty Shades of 40k…as long as it adds to the evergrowing canvas of Trek incarnations…
POSITIVITY!
“Deltans, Chameloids, Cherons… bluu-haired Rachel Garret…”
I am there for ALL of that, and I’ll be very happy if it turns out I like this movie. Even though I think the trailers are terrible, I genuinely want this to succeed. I just don’t have high hopes due to what we’ve seen so far.
I don’t get the hate for it before anyone has actually seen it.
Well, here’s hoping for the best, but I truly wish they had listened to a majority of the fans on this one and skipped it. Getting this and Academy over Legacy feels as if fan wishes aren’t being catered to, which isn’t completely abnormal, but what happens if this totally fails? Do they then try listening to what fans want? Discovery was originally supposed to be an anthology series, I think, and each season would have seen a different ship or crew or premise. Having a string of movies come out focusing on a variety of different things in the Trek universe would be interesting, but at this point I think most of us are just pining for some lower-budget stories that are more cerebral and true(r) to the nature of more traditional Trek.
I don’t think they know how to write the Star Trek of the past anymore. Its just Star Wars lite now, for an ever decreasing fan base.
They can’t shift any merch based on the new shows. The DSC line of ships helped to sink Eaglemoss, the books don’t shift of the shelves anymore.
When Picard season3 was released I had some hope because finally we had a decent writer. But then Matalas got snatched up. The future of Star Trek looks bleak. At least I have For All Mankind to enjoy.
That’s the thing. I would be fine if they weren’t writing “the Star Trek of the past” if I had any impression that they *knew* how to do it. I believe you have to know how to play by the rules before you can break them.
It doesn’t feel like fan wishes aren’t being catered to, as much as that fan wishes for more Matalas energy and less Kurtzman energy are being interpreted by the creative management as a slap in the face by the fans, and that Section 31 and Academy are a spiteful response to those fans.
If they l listen to the fans, we wouldn’t have TNG, DS9, VOYAGER, ENTERPRISE or anything else but awful tos rehashing. The fans are STs worst enemy.
“I truly wish they had listened to a majority of the fans on this one and skipped it”
Come on. I think this looks bad, but it’s absurd to say “a majority of the fans” wanted it skipped. You have absolutely no evidence to back that up since you have no idea (none of us do) what the majority of fans want. Those who post on boards like this one represent a tiny, tiny, TINY fraction of fandom. The vast majority of fans never visit or post on these boards. We are very much in the minority, to the extent that we here are statistically insignificant. If you’re basing that on what you see on YouTube, keep in mind that YouTube is filled with toxic trolls, so nothing you see there should be viewed as a barometer of fandom. The simple truth is that you speak for you, yourself, and not for anyone else. Let’s keep some perspective, OK?
they should not be looking over their shoulder to please fans.
“I’m terrified of how it’s going to be received, because it’s not the Trek people want,” Kazinsky, who plays Zeph, says in the new issue of SFX magazine.
He’s right to be worried. It doesn’t look like the Star Trek that I knew and loved. I’ll skip this just like I gave up on DSC after Season 2. I wish they’d have gone with Legacy, but they give us SFA and S31 instead, both of which look dubious.
‘knew’ is right. Get over that. Times moves forward.
Yeah, we should all “get over” negative developments, because “times moves [sic] forward.” Case in point, life in Germany in the 1930s was so much better than in the 1920s.
All due respect… do you really mean to be comparing a TV movie to the rise of Nazi Germany?
Although it is an exaggerated example, it does highlight that the concept of something new and modern does not automatically make it superior to what is old and tested.
I’m sick of this mentality that just because something is the latest then that makes it the best.
Seconded, and thirded, to the Nth degree. I’m very glad to have indoor plumbing, refrigerators and not having to drive stick, but there’s plenty of global warming effects due to other lesser forms of progress that we can live without.
“So this is going to come along and it’s not going to feel like any Trek that they’ve ever seen. My fear was that it might not feel like Trek at all. So for you to tell me that it still feels like Trek whilst being a completely different flavour of Trek, that encourages me. In 10 years time, we’ll look back and we’ll love every single one of these Treks.”
If an actor from the film says this, then he knows it’s not good.
He’s a Trekkie, so he’s admitting to not being sure how the fan base will respond. Doesn’t mean it won’t be a hit. Trek has taken big leaps before. A lot of the movies are outside what one would consider the comfort zone (TWOK, TVH, TUC, FC and 2009 get praised for dipping into tone and storylines that demonstrate Trek’s versatility but don’t resemble much of what we got on TV), with some like Insurrection and Beyond getting argued about because they feel like they could be episodes of the shows.
The proof will be in the pudding.
It may not be the trek folks want, but since the majority keeps watching every new bit of crap that warps its way onscreen, perhaps it is the trek they deserve.
We’re entering ever-more deeply into an era envisioned by Lizzy Borden’s BORN IN FLAMES feature over 40 years back, a film that presaged the early 21st’s strides in equality for many peoples, then saw the pendulum swing back with a vengeance toward straight white males controlling everything with impunity, which certainly seems to be the straight-to-hell road we’ve now embarked upon. So if Trek is crap, it must be mainstream crap appeal. If you don’t like it, turn it off and watch the stuff you do like.
Feels like a hell of a monkey’s paw that the movie somewhat predestined to be poorly received will be the litmus test for whether there are more movies.
Doesn’t it, Though?
I know, it makes no sense. The YouTube trailer has an enormous number of Dislikes. All the social media posts on Facebook and X are full of comments from fans saying that it looks terrible. This is going to be a disaster for Star Trek.
Even the cast are worried, read Kazinsky in SFX magazine where he says he’s terrified of the reaction and that actually what people want is a thousand more episodes of TNG.
Not me. I could barely tolerate the ones they made.
This looks like Paramount+ trying to make Star Trek movies without much Star Trek in them, beyond the superficial references, so they can try and shed the geek factor and make it cool.
I’m really torn about watching it at all because if it is really as bad as the trailer suggests it is, then I don’t want to risk P+ thinking they should make more like it.
And Kazinsky is correct as far as I am concerned. I would gladly take 1000 more TNG, DS9 and Voyager episodes.
Well, the footage shown so far does make it look like it was a new season of Discovery that wasn’t spread out over 10 episodes. It certainly appears to have Discovery’s DNA baked in.
I’m not really sure I would be satisfied with one off made for tv movies. The quality factor is always obvious with those types of movies. Always.
With comments like “…expand the universe so much faster, because it doesn’t have to all be television series. It can just be one pop, one pop, one pop.” tells me the quality of the franchise is no longer a priority. Just make as much “stuff” as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Star Trek shows worked best as ensemble series with good character writing so that the fans can make connections with them and become invested in the premise of the shows. He doesn’t get it, and this makes me sad for Star Trek.
That’s how I feel, sad about the current state of Trek. But I think TV movies could work. The big Voyager two parters always got great ratings back in the day. But I agree that we need an ensemble that we actually care about. I have no interest in watching Grimdark Star Trek. You’d think they’d have learned the lesson from the terrible reaction to Picard Season 1 and 2 and the success of season 3.
The Voyager two-parters were just extended length episodes of a show that had already established itself with characters and story. Now imagine if Voyager had only consisted of Caretaker as a one off tv movie and nothing more. Just how invested would fans have been with it? I suspect not very.
Quantity over quality is a mistake in my opinion. Spit balling random ideas as one offs isn’t the way to go and I can’t believe that Paramount has the money to burn with stuff like that.
In success, may it lead to more movies like was the case with Stargate SG-1.
The SG-1 movies were all terrible compared to the three Stargate series.
They were so poorly received that we never got the promised final movie that was supposed to tell us what happened to Atlantis.
If that’s the precedent, the future of Star Trek is indeed bleak.
We didn’t get that movie because the direct to DVD market died out.
And MGM was dealing with bankruptcy, which is a big reason why Stargate Universe got unceremoniously canceled.
Indeed.
Stream movie II: ST Legacy
Stream movie III: Kelvins TUC
Stream movie IV: Enterprise
Stream movie V: Khan Ceti Alpha V
Stream movie VI: ST Into the Multiverse
Yeah, but then Kurtzman wouldn’t be a genius visionary, so we can’t have that sensible approach…
With due respect, PLEASE no more Khan. Enough of Khan. Wrath of Khan — well, nothing better than that film. And into Darkness lifts him as a completely different guy in another universe when there was NO need to do so.
Would LOVE to see an Enterprise movie (streaming) that tells us what REALLY happened, not that holodeck BS Valentine we got.
Is that podcast audio drama thing ever going to happen? I’d like a mini of Ceti Alpha but how can you replace Montalban and pretend the new actor is the same guy. Just the same I’d prefer a recast instead of faking it in cgi via deepfake over the new stand in.
The one problem i see with the the story is no Kirk to play off of. Just Khan being on a desolate world with his wits to survive. and his hatred giving him the strength to stay alive. A good story needs an antagonist and protagonist. even Ahab had his white whale. A desire to conquer death, or fate or to avenge oneself on their enemy. Ceti Alpla V has no such device. Do you make it a Shakespearean tragedy or some mythic thing about Khan’s struggle make him sympathetic. The 15 years of his planning his revenge is mere motivation and backstory and not a story unto itself.
Honestly, I think it’s a great idea to produce some more made for Paramount+ movies vs a large theatrical release. I imagine it would be a good deal less expensive and time consuming to do a made-for-TV movie, and also wouldn’t need to be made in such a way as to try to cater to non-fans.
With that being said (and while the trailers look rough, I will withhold judgment of the S31 movie until I see), I’m not too keen on any more S31 movies, or even just S31 stories at this point.
Also probably wouldn’t need to spend $150M to market it. A modest budget, a smaller scale story, and lower marketing costs, and a series of quarterly movies could replace a full 10-episode series for the same cost or less.
The only question is the return: without a theatrical release, will quarterly movies bring in subscribers to justify the investment?
Alternatively, even a limited theatrical release (in advance of the streaming release a few weeks later) could help recoup a significant portion of the budget even if it’s only running in cinemas for under a month.
I’m looking forward to this, because it’s a great cast and it looks like it’ll be fun.
I don’t pay attention to review-bombing efforts by bots, and unless someone has actual data on the Star Trek / P+ audience, I think it’s a stretch to say “the majority of the fans want X / dislike Y.”
There’s fans, and then there’s the audience of viewers who enjoy shows but don’t buy all the merchandise or go to comic-cons, which is far larger. The survival of the show depends on the former group not gatekeeping the latter.
Doing another planet-of-the-week show is a reflexive instinct, because it’s a “safe” thing we are familiar with, but IMO it’s a mistaken approach. We have Strange New Worlds for that right now. If you want to call that the “core” show, I’d agree with that. There should always be one of those on, so eventually something will replace it.
The issue becomes why create a spinoff if it’s just an edited photocopy of a show that already existed – or worse, is on air at the same time as the original show? You hit a point of diminishing returns.
I think this was the problem with Voyager being seen as TNG-lite, in addition to its issues just getting in front of an audience, having fallen between regimes at Paramount and the whole United Paramount Network debacle.
In addition, these are streaming shows. Streaming audiences for any one particular show are generally way smaller than broadcast TV — the odd HBO or Apple breakout show are the exceptions rather than the rules. The point of it is, it’s easier to take risks and experiment when you’re not having to cater to the same broad audience as Big Bang Theory.
Looking at US Cable and Broadcast data from November 2024, the top 10 shows were eight different NFL football shows, 60 Minutes, and Tracker.
I don’t know if this says anything about who’s still watching broadcast TV vs. cable / streaming, but as you go down the list and go past the other sports programs and police shows, it dissolves into reality TV shows, true crime shows, and news programs. The first comic-book / SF genre show I could find was the recently wrapped-up Superman & Lois at #207 on the CW, with an audience of 354,000.
So – doing a fun “sci fi heist flick” TV movie with a globally recognized Oscar-winning lead, Emmy-nominated cast members, others recognizable from films and TV shows like Hannibal, Pacific Rim, and EastEnders, plus a Grammy-winning second lead (Omari Hardwick) also known for very well-reviewed shows, seems to me to be a splashy way to break Star Trek out to a wider audience, and cut through the very fragmented television landscape we’re living in.
SNW isn’t doing planet of the week. It was sort of doing that in season one, but moved away from that into more of a variety show with a lot of comedic Spock gags in season 2. I would love for SNW to be doing a planet of the week show.
I also disliked when it became a full on Sitcom or YA romance show. But everyone likes different things. Pike constantly cooking in the Kitchen, and being everyone’s dad was so weird and goofy. I’m not expecting him to be Jellico, but a commanding officer in Starfleet. Might as well resign his commission because number one, aka Una exudes authority and should just be Captain because she is far more competent.
A very thoughtful, well-reasoned comment!
That’s a fair POV. People get so caught up in their notion of what “the fans want” that they can lose sight of how important it has been in Trek’s history to swing for the fences now and again.
Nothing I’ve seen so far has remotely interested me in this, but I have P+ so I’ll give it a watch.
Happy New Year to all!
So the writer wrote the Discovery episode “Context Is For Kings”. Okay. I thought that episode was alright. Section 31 with the right guidance could have been a compelling Star Trek series. A show that delves into the activities of Section 31 during the TOS era would have been a good thing but for some reason they do the complete opposite in the Kurtzmanverse.
They don’t believe in what draws fans they prefer projects that are all about them. Ask Leslie Headland how that worked out with the Acolyte.
I am going to watch but if I don’t like it, I will find an appropriate venue (This One) to let it all hang out. And I quote the actor playing the Augment (Just what we need another Augment. How much do you want to bet he disregarded Khans orders and was left on Ceti Alpha v, but I digress) “Guardians of the Galaxy on Steroids” You guys don’t have the type of budget needed to purchase those drugs.
Look, I will admit that I have contributed to the pool of cynicism around modern Trek. Discovery really pushed me over the edge because it was becoming apparent that they were letting the inmates (the actors) run the show and whatever Bryan Fullers original visions was, that is not how that show ended.
Anyway, I will get my subscription back up to watch it and then cancel it until SNW season 3 comes back on.
January 25th can’t come soon enough, I am very keen to actually finally be able to watch this and make up my mind on whether it is good or not based on its merits.
This goes far toward explaining why the trailers were so godawful.
I used to think any Trek is better than no Trek. I think that was before I saw all these studios implode their IPs. Sigh. RIP Trek
Yeah, I know a guy who is desperate for a Stargate revival. Be careful what you wish for is my response. I’ve just discovered For All Mankind, it’s great.
I’ve put FOR ALL MANKIND on my roster of shows to view (probably on a airplane!) in 2025. I’m looking forward to it a lot more than this Section 31 likely-turkey, that’s for sure.
Oh man look at the era appropriate interface on that console
Rachel Garret’s phaser also appears to be a mix of Wrath of Khan and TNG Season 1
OTOY has demonstrated how revisiting different eras can be done beautifully and effectively. This opens up some interesting possibilities for standalone streaming films. The problem seems to be the studio doesn’t know where to go with these.
But imagine….standalone films set in 60s era of Trek, TMP era, or post TUC. ENT could even get their proper finale. We could even see a Legacy adventure post-Picard.
Oh the possibilities….
Oh, how I would love for that technology to be used to make a TOS movie based on the cancelled Star Trek game from the 90s, “Secret of Vulcan Fury”. The trailer for that looked really interesting back then.
Oh, the possibilities indeed!
Awesome. I knew this was a back door pilot.