Star Trek: Section 31 - Release Window, Cast, And More Info

As seen in the photo above, filming has begun on "Star Trek: Section 31," a TV movie starring Michelle Yeoh as Empress Philippa Georgiou, the "evil" counterpart to the deceased Captain Philippa Georgiou. Yeoh's character appeared in multiple episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery," and exited the series when she was recruited into Section 31, the "Star Trek" equivalent of the CIA. Section 31, outfitted with badass black badges, engaged in shady dealings on Starfleet's behalf, subverting the organization's ideals when violence was needed. 

A "Section 31" TV series was rumored to be in production as early as 2017 when Trekkies noticed that the call numbers of the U.S.S. Discovery were NCC-1031. An official Yeoh-starring series was announced in 2018 and several episodes were written. Eventually, though, the series was developed into a single televised movie event. 

Yeoh's character, hailing from the infamous Mirror Universe, has already murdered untold thousands of people, committed acts of cannibalism, and threatened to take over the galaxy. Although she eventually went through something approaching a redemption arc, Empress Georgiou clearly has the loose moral code required to work in the already morally dubious Section 31. It remains strange, though, that Starfleet would essentially be responsible for creating outright villains. 

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman announced on the Paramount press site: "And we're off to the races! Thrilled to report principal photography has started on 'Star Trek: Section 31.' We welcome our incredible cast of new characters as they join our beloved Michelle Yeoh on her next wild adventure across the 'Trek' universe."

Here's some more information about the film.

No official release date has yet been announced, sadly. The Paramount press release merely confirmed that "Section 31" will only be available on Paramount+ in the United States and in all the other territories where Paramount+ is available (currently: Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, throughout Latin America, the Middle East, Scandinavia, as well as the United Kingdom, and Ireland). There's a chance we'll see it this year, but not until later in 2024 at the earliest. 

Paramount announced the other cast members of "Section 31," including Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao. None of these actors have appeared in "Star Trek" before, so "Section 31" may stand as a rare phenomenon in modern "Star Trek" in that it is (potentially) not a legacy series. All the other Trek series made since 2017 have featured direct connections to established Trek lore. The "Discovery" character Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) for instance, is Spock's long-lost adoptive sister, and Spock appeared in the second season of "Discovery." "Lower Decks" is lousy with references, "Prodigy" features Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and both "Picard" and "Strange New Worlds" star familiar faces exclusively. 

It remains to be seen if any of the above cast members will play a relative of a known Trek character, however. Section 31, meanwhile, was first mentioned in later seasons of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and has appeared in "Star Trek: Enterprise" and "Star Trek: Lower Decks." Multiple storylines throughout the franchise have been devoted to the organization's untrustworthiness. 

"Section 31" will be written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. Because modern Trek requires armies of producers, the credited production team includes Kurtzman, Sweeny, Aaron Baiers, Osunsanmi, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, and Yeoh.

The logline for 'Star Trek: Section 31' was a little vague, saying only that "Emperor Philippa Georgiou ... joins a secret division of Starfleet," and that she is "tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past."

It seems that while Yeoh is delicious as a cannibalistic villainess, "Section 31" will pointedly hope to redeem her. In "Star Trek: Discovery," Philippa Georgiou was hijacked from her home dimension and forced to live in the more righteous one. An encounter with the Guardian of Forever in "Discovery" started her on her path of self-reflection, making her realize that she may actually possess the capacity for forgiveness and virtue. Having fled her home dimension, however, one might posit that she's outrun the statute of limitations on her dictatorial crimes; all her victims are in a parallel universe now, and many of them are still alive in the "main" "Star Trek" timeline. This, of course, brings up an interesting quandary: are you still morally corrupt if your crimes have been erased from existence? 

As of this writing, no official trailers have been released. 

/Film will report on "Section 31" as more details become available. This will be the second TV movie in "Star Trek" history, provided one counts the two-hour episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" called "Dark Frontier" (February 17, 1999). "Dark Frontier," after its debut, subsequently aired as two episodes.