Star Trek: Section 31officially makes Michelle Yeoh’s impact onStar Trekmovies the equivalent of what Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway meant toStar TrekTV shows.Premiering January 24 on Paramount+,Star Trek: Section 31is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny.Section 31is the firstStar Trekmovie made for streaming on Paramount+, and it marks the return of Michelle Yeoh as her iconic anti-heroine,Emperor Philippa GeorgioufromStar Trek: Discovery.
There have been 13 theatricalStar TrekmoviessinceStar Trek: The Motion Picturebrought Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi franchise to the big screen in 1979.Every previousStar Trekmovie has been about a version of the USS Enterprise.The first sixStar Trekmovies were about Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and thecast ofStar Trek: The Original Series.Star Trek: The Next Generationthen had four movies before J.J. Abrams rebootedStar Trekwith three films set in the alternate Kelvin Timeline.
Star Trek: Section 31breaks theStar Trekmovie mold by not centering on the Starship Enterprise just as Michelle Yeoh makesStar Trekhistory.
Yeoh Is Star Trek’s First Academy Award-Winning Leading Lady
Michelle Yeoh is the first woman to be the lead of aStar Trekmovie. Further, Michelle Yeoh is positioned as the first and best possible woman to lead aStar Trekmovie. Star Trek: Discoveryscored a coup in 2017 by casting Yeoh, an acclaimed and respected international film star, to play the doomed Captain Philippa Georgiou inStar Trek: Discovery’s premiere. While Sonequa Martin-Green was indisputablyStar Trek: Discovery’s series lead, it was the star power of Yeoh andJason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorcathat initially gaveDiscoverya boost in prestige. Yeoh then returned as the Mirror Universe’s Emperor Georgiou, which became her signatureStar Trekrole.
Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Georgiou proved popular with fans as well asStar Trek: Discovery’s producers, to the point that a spinoff was planned to center on Georgiou and Section 31. ThenMichelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Academy Award forEverything Everywhere All At Once. Suddenly,Star Trekboasted a newly-minted Oscar winner. Demand for Yeoh, along with the COVID-19 pandemic altering plans for aSection 31TV series, transitioned the project to become the first made-for-Paramount+Star Trekstreaming movie.
Star Trek: Section 31 - Everything You Need To Know
Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh headlines Star Trek: Section 31, and here’s what we know about Paramount+’s first Star Trek streaming movie.
Michelle Yeoh’s global fame and prestige are amplified by her status as an Academy Award winner, andYeoh now becomes the first Oscar winner to headline aStar Trek movie. Even better,Yeoh loves theStar Trekfranchiseand pushed forSection 31to be made, working it into her increasingly busy schedule. Because every prior film centered on the (male) Captain of the Starship Enterprise,Star Trekmovies never had a female lead before, and it’s only logical that Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh would break that glass ceiling.
Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou Couldn’t Be More Different From Captain Janeway
One Is A Starfleet Captain, The Other Is A Former Dictator
AsCaptain Janeway onStar Trek: Voyager,Kate Mulgrew madeStar Trekhistory 30 years ago by becoming the first woman to lead aStar Trekseries.Of course, Captain Janeway could not be more opposite to Emperor Philippa Georgiou. Janeway is a compassionate leader who courageously performed an impossible task by bringing the USS Voyager and her crew 70,000 light-years through the uncharted Delta Quadrant back home to Earth. InStar Trek: Prodigy,Admiral Janeway helped save the multiverse while inspiring a new generation of young Starfleet heroes.
Captain Janeway has much more in common with Captain Philippa Georgiou, the noble Prime Universe counterpart of Emperor Georgiou.
In contrast, Emperor Georgiou was the authoritarian dictator of the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe. Georgiou ruled through fear and murder, and she was responsible for the deaths of millionsas well as the subjugation of numerous alien races. Through flashbacks,Star Trek: Section 31will depict how the young Philippa Georgiou (Miku Martineau) rose to power. And yet,Georgiou is also on a path to redemption. Philippa’s time with Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) onStar Trek: Discoverysparked Georgiou’s better angels, though she remains as insidiously deadly as ever inStar Trek: Section 31.
Everything Star Trek Just Revealed About Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 Team
Star Trek: Section 31 is made up of a group of rogues and scoundrels working outside Starfleet. Here are new details about Emperor Georgiou’s team.
It’s rather remarkable that aStar Trekmovieis being built around a character like Emperor Georgiou, to begin with. Georgiou has a sordid history as a murderer and despot.Philippa embodies decidedly anti-Star Trektraits,even for a questionable black ops agency like Section 31, which ultimately does its dirty deeds to protect the Federation. AStar Trekmovie led by Emperor Georgiou speaks to the popularity and stature of Michelle Yeoh, and the indelible impact she made onStar Trek: Discovery.
Michelle Yeoh Continues Star Trek’s Women Making History
Star Trek Has Come A Long Way With Female Representation
Michelle Yeoh is the latest woman inStar Trekto shatter the invisible glass ceiling to make history.Star Trekactually introduced the first female Starfleet Captain seen on-screen inStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home,when Madge Sinclair played the unnamed Captain of the USS Saratoga. This also makes Sinclair, who returned inStar Trek: The Next Generationas Captain Silva La Forge, themother of Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge(LeVar Burton), the first female African-AmericanStar TrekCaptain.
Which Star Trek Movies & Shows You Need To Watch Before Section 31
Star Trek: Section 31 is the first Star Trek streaming movie, but it’s a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery and has elements of other Trek lore.
It took 22 years afterStar Trek: Voyagerpremiered forStar Trek: Discoveryto introduce Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham.Martin-Green is the first African-American woman to be aStar Trekseries lead, and Burnham became Captain of the USS Discovery at theend ofStar Trek: Discoveryseason 3.Star Trek: Lower Decksdebuted Black mother-daughter Starfleet Officers: Ensign/Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) of the USS Cerritos. Mariner is also co-lead ofStar Trek: Lower Deckswith Ensign/Lieutenant Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid).
Jeri Ryan’s Captain Seven of Nine could be another femaleStar Trekseries lead ifStar Trek: Picard’s proposed spinoff,Star Trek: Legacy, happens.
After Michelle Yeoh headlinesStar Trek: Section 31, Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter will headline the nextStar Trekseries on Paramount+,Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.Hunter plays the unnamed Captain and Chancellor of the Academy, and she is joined by Academy Award-nominated Paul Giamatti asStarfleet Academy’s main villain.The women ofStar Trekcontinue to make history and achieve great heights for the franchise. Michelle Yeoh as the first woman to be the lead of aStar Trekmovie automatically makesStar Trek: Section 31a historic endeavor.
