First trailer Paramount+‘Star Trek: Section 31’ screened at Paramount’s ‘Star Trek’ panel in a packed Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and it was an emotional take on Starfleet’s secretive black-ops organization.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi (“The Fourth Kind,” “Falling Skies,” “Star Trek: Discovery”) from a script by Craig Sweeney and eventually arriving on popular platforms sometime in 2025, “Section 31” stars Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez and James Hiroyuki Liao. The teaser trailer, released on Saturday (July 27), is our best look yet at the new Trek feature, but if you need a refresher, check out our guide to everything you need to know about Star Trek: Section 31 . Our Star Trek streaming guide can also help you catch up on all the other Trek shows ahead of the new movie.
The official summary is as follows:
“‘Star Trek: Section 31’ is a Paramount+ original film starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yoga as Empress Philippa Georges, who joins Starfleet’s secretive division. She’s tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, but also must confront the sins of her past.”
In keeping with the classified super-spy theme, the pale yellow title card for this wild SDCC merch reads: “This preview contains some wacky content as determined by Starfleet General Media. Colorful metaphors, references to meltdowns, Deltan camaraderie, and unauthorized jumps.”
In the two-minute song, which is musically matched to Beyoncé’s “Formation,” we get our first glimpse into a series of flashbacks that reveal the atrocities committed by young Philippa Georges (Miku Martino) as she rises through the ranks of the Mirror Universe’s Terran Empire, both feared and welcomed as Emperor.
From the tone and style of this early teaser, the “Discovery” spinoff known as “Section 31” has a lively, vivid feel that takes fans into the dark world of “Star Trek” covert agents. Yeoh seems to relish the role of a cunning dictator with a violent history, now trapped in the Prime Universe and recruited into this clandestine intelligence team that operates with very few rules.
“Section 31” is definitely working to develop its own look and feel, and it can seem a little out of place at first. But with a capable cast, consistency of tone, and the leadership of a veteran director with Oh Soon-san at the helm, a project like “Sureside Squad,” which moves stealthily through the “Star Trek” universe, could be a surprisingly refreshing addition to Paramount+’s final frontier of content.
“Star Trek: Section 31” is executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, Craig Sweeny, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Trevor Roth, Rod Roddenberry and Michelle Yeoh. Paramount+ Early 2025.
