Michelle Yeoh announces her first post-Oscars win: a return to ‘Star Trek’
This year’s Best Actress winner at the Academy Awards, Michelle Yeoh, has announced the first project of her post-Oscar career. She is going back to the future, reprising her role of Emperor Philippa Georgiou in “Star Trek: Section 31,” which a press release described as an Original Movie Event for Paramount +.
This is the first such project for the streamer that has multiple “Trek” properties going at different points in the timeline, like “Star Trek: Picard,” which brought back old favorites played by Sir Patrick Stewart, and Jonathan Frakes, “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” an “adult” animation from “Rick and Morty” alum Mike McMahan, and an “Original Series”-style prequel, “Strange New Worlds,” starring Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Celia Rose Gooding.
“I’m beyond thrilled to return to my ‘Star Trek’ family and to the role I’ve loved for so long,” Yeoh said in the statement. “Section 31 has been near and dear to my heart since I began the journey of playing Philippa all the way back when this new golden age of ‘Star Trek’ launched. To see her finally get her moment is a dream come true in a year that’s shown me the incredible power of never giving up on your dreams. We can’t wait to share what’s in store for you, and until then: live long and prosper (unless Emperor Georgiou decrees otherwise)!”
Section 31 is the black ops division of Starfleet intelligence that gets its hands dirty in a “24”-like manner when the typically upbeat show’s methods are not enough. The concept was first introduced in the ‘90s series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” with some fans grumbling that it violated the recently deceased series creator Gene Roddenberry’s utopian vision of the future and the United Federation of Planets. (But what good is a utopian vision when the Dominion is invading the Alpha Quadrant, I ask!??!)
Yeoh’s character of Captain Philippa Georgiou was part of the initial two-part pilot of 2017’s revamp of the franchise, “Star Trek: Discovery,” created by Bryan Fuller. The character was killed at the end of the second episode, but when our heroes (including Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, and Doug Jones) went into the Mirror Universe, they met the evil version of the character, whose full name was Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius. Star Trek!
Though this character is a full-fledged baddie who would literally eat her enemies, Yeoh’s performance in the role turned out to be one of the best parts of the series. She came back as a semi-regular, with Martin-Green’s character kinda-sorta convincing her to use her powers for good. Thus, she joined forces with Section 31 (seemed like a good fit.) When we last saw her, in season three, she zipped off somewhere in time and space, traveling with the aid of “the Guardian of Forever,” that weird stone vortex that, in the 1960s, sent William Shatner off to make out with Joan Collins. “Star Trek: Discovery”’s next season, its fifth, will also be its last.
Okay, now you’re briefed!
The “Section 31” movie was written by Craig Sweeny who, in addition to “Star Trek: Discovery,” has also worked on “Limitless” and “The 4400.” The project will be directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, a “Discovery” mainstay who also helmed “Gotham,” the recent version of “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” and the Milla Jovovich sci-fi thriller “The Fourth Kind.”
Production begins later this year.
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