New Star Trek spinoff Section 31 begins production soon
Michelle Yeoh is getting her own Star Trek spinoff: Section 31. Yeoh got on Trekkies’ radars when she appeared as Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery season 1 on CBS All Access, and then again as the Captain’s doppelganger, Emperor Philippa Georgiou of the Terran Empire.
Speaking about Section 31 to Space.com at the Picard world premiere, showrunner Alex Kurtzman sounded excited about where the show was going. “It’s well on its way, I can tell you that. And Erika [Lippoldt] and Bo Yeon [Kim] have written a great script and we have a writers’ room, and it’s exciting.”
Production will begin on May 4 of this year in Mississauga, Canada, and will reportedly film for seven months, hopefully wrapping up in November. The show’s production was forced to delay its start because of Michelle Yeoh’s filming schedule on the Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
That means production on Section 31 might begin around the time Discovery airs the finale of its third season. Between those shows and Picard, it’s Trek year-round now.
Speaking of Discovery season 3, Kurtzman was psyched about that, too. “[It’s] a new world, literally,” he said. “It’s a new world.”
"It’s 1,000 years in the future. [It’s got] things you expect from Star Trek — enemies might be allies, former allies might now be enemies. [But] everything’s different. It’s still the world of Star Trek, no question about it, but there’s a lot of huge changes in the universe. And it’s interesting because, as we cut it, it [still] feels very much like Discovery, but the world is just so different … people will definitely have a minute of going, “Wow, I need a minute to adjust to what this is.”"
With the season taking place entirely in the future, Kurtzman and his team didn’t have to worry about messing with contradicting anything from another Star Trek show. “There’s no worry of canon at this point. We’re not even anywhere close to where canon has been. Everything that happened … in the past has actually planted seeds that have led to outcomes in the future. And getting to see that over the spectrum of this amazing time jump is really what’s fun about the season.”
"The only restraints are making sure that we don’t violate some Trek fundamentals. But because we’re not having to sync up with canon, we really had a different kind of freedom this year."
Production on Section 31 may not have begun yet, but shooting on Discovery season 3 is just about done, at least according to actor Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber). “We’ve been working very hard since the summer, and we’re almost done,” he said. “And I think it’s going to be very exciting for people to see the world that we inhabit when we get there.”
Star Trek: Picard airs on CBS All Access on Thursdays. Let’s hope Discovery season 3 premieres soon its finale.
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