The long-awaited first trailer for Star Trek: Section 31 is finally here, and it definitely brings a fresh vibe to the franchise.
Paramount+ revealed a two-minute look (below) at the Star Trek: Discovery spinoff movie, which stars Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, reprising her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou.
The show is about Georgiou joining a secret “black ops” division of Starfleet. From the official description, when “tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.”
The trailer strives for a more rebellious tone for the nearly 60-year-old Trek franchise, complete with contemporary music (the trailer is set to Beyoncé’s “Formation”), an onscreen “warning” from Starfleet about its “misfit content,” and title card graphics which break with Trek tradition. At one point an officer tells Georgiou that she’s there to keep her from murdering people, and the Emperor replies, “What a cute idea.” In another scene, a character describes Georgiou as “a bad bitch.”
The two-minute video also includes a first look at a young Philippa Georgiou, played by Miku Martineau.
The trailer was first presented at Paramount+’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, which included castmembers Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson and Kacey Rohl, along with executive producer Alex Kurtzman and director Olatunde Osunsanmi. Yeoh introduced the trailer via a previously recorded announcement. Craig Sweeny wrote the film.
Section 31 was originally conceived as a spinoff TV series in 2017 during the filming of the first season of Discovery. The project first entered talks in 2018. The project picked up steam in 2019 when it went into active development with Yeoh attached. Sometime after that, public statements about Section 31 seemed to get less optimistic, with Kurtzman having to reassure fans the project was “still very much alive.” Then, last year, the project was ordered as a movie.
Section 31 will premiere on Paramount+ in early 2025.
