Ahead Of Star Trek: Section 31’s Premiere, The Director Shares How Close Michelle Yeoh’s Spinoff Came To Being A TV Series

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Only a single week remains until the much-anticipated “Star Trek: Section 31″ graces our movie screens of 2025, offering a reunion for fans with Paramount+ subscriptions to Michelle Yeoh’s character, Philippa Georgiou, who once ruled the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe. Interestingly, “Section 31” was initially planned as part of the upcoming lineup for “Star Trek” television series. Intriguingly, director Olatunde Osunsanmi revealed that the “Section 31” TV show had advanced considerably in the development process before a creative shift occurred.

If the initial scheme had unfolded as intended, Osunsanmi was slated to take charge of the Section 31 pilot. His previous work on the franchise, where he directed several episodes for Star Trek: Discovery, prepared the ground for this spinoff. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Osunsanmi discussed his role when the Section 31 TV series was being developed.

During the process of wrapping up and filming the final episodes of Disco’s second season, we also simultaneously developed and discussed the concept for a Section 31 pilot. In essence, we were working on two separate series concurrently.

For individuals who might need a reminder or haven’t seen “Star Trek: Discovery”, the Season 2 finale featured the crew aboard their ship, including Philippa Georgiou, journeying over 900 years into the future. However, Georgiou’s stay was short-lived due to her traveling such a vast distance in time and originating from another universe causing her molecules to drift too far from their original location. This gradual decay was lethal, but the Guardian of Forever created a portal to send her back to an earlier era within the Prime Universe. When “Section 31” starts, we’ll find Georgiou there, though several decades ahead of where “Discovery’s” first two seasons unfolded, as indicated by Rachel Garrett’s presence, who later becomes the captain of the “Enterprise-C”.

I must confess, I’d be telling a white lie if I said I didn’t have high hopes for how Section 31 would play out as a TV series, especially considering the possibility of additional Discovery characters joining Philippa Georgiou, such as Shazad Latif’s Ash Tyler. Unfortunately, that particular project took a different direction when Craig Sweeney penned another pilot script treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic then added more complications to the plans, and by early 2023, it was decided to produce Section 31 as a movie instead, although its production was postponed due to two Hollywood strikes.

According to Olatunde Osunsanmi, it was the unwavering dedication of “Star Trek” franchise mastermind Alex Kurtzman, along with Aaron Baiers, president of TV at Kurtzman’s production company Secret Hideout, and Michelle Yeoh, who were instrumental in bringing the series “Section 31” to life.

I can’t believe that we actually are on the verge of releasing it to the world after all of that.

We’ll find out how Star Trek: Section 31 shapes up once it hits screens on January 24, starring Michelle Yeoh alongside Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humbly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao. After its debut, the Trek universe will move forward with Strange New Worlds Season 3, scheduled for some time in the 2025 television lineup.

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2025-01-18 03:07