"Whatever you believe your mission was, it's worse than you thought."
closeup of lovely Asian woman smiling with half-sinister intent closeup of lovely Asian woman smiling with half-sinister intent
Credit: Paramount+
Michelle Yeoh stars in Star Trek: Section 31.
We've got a shiny new trailer for Star Trek: Section 31, the long-awaited spinoff film that brings back Michelle Yeoh's magnificent Phillipa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery. The film will give us the backstory for Georgiou's evil Mirror Universe counterpart, where she was a despotic emperor who murdered millions of her own people.
As previously reported, Yeoh's stylishly acerbic Georgiou was eventually written out of Discovery, but fans took hope from rumors of a spinoff series featuring the character. That turned into a spinoff film, and we'll take it. Miku Martineau plays a young Phillipa Georgiou in the film. Meanwhile, Yeoh's older Georgiou is tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets as part of a black ops group called Section 31, while dealing with all the blood she's spilled in her past.
Any hardcore Star Trek fan will tell you that Section 31 was first introduced as an urban legend of sorts in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Apparently Ira Steven Behr—who came up with the idea of a secret rogue organization within Starfleet doing shady things to protect the Federation—took inspiration from Commander Sisko's comment in one episode about how "It's easy to be a saint in paradise." The name is taken from Starfleet Charter Article 14, Section 31, which allows Starfleet to take extraordinary measures in the face of extreme threats—including sabotage, assassination, and even biological warfare.
Paramount+ dropped a teaser at San Diego Comic-Con in July that opened with a flashback to the young Philippa, musing via voiceover about how an emperor "can only be loyal to duty" to ensure that the empire stays strong. But the rest was largely devoted to Yeoh swanning about in fabulous outfits while her fellow secret agents told her what a "bad bitch" she is. "Somebody's got to keep it lively, right?" Georgiou smirked.
We don't learn much about the plot in this new trailer, but we do get an eyeful of the snazzy casino-type setting on the space station where Georgiou has set up operations, as well as a glimpse of the Cheron, an alien species from The Original Series who are black on one side, white on the other. Georgiou is recruited to join Section 31. Apparently the Federation faces "a threat unlike anything Starfleet's ever seen." (I bet they say that to all the former evil empresses.) Billions of lives are at stake, and the Section 31 team must band together to save the day—with a bit of oversight from Starfleet to ensure they don't, like, commit murder or something. Cue fight scenes, big explosions, spaceships in distress, and other classic Star Trek tropes.
Star Trek: Section 31 premieres on Paramount+ on January 24, 2025.