Star Trek Fans Lose Hope On A Section 31 Spinoff After Michelle Yeoh's Oscar Win
After Michelle Yeoh's historic win at the 2023 Academy Awards, "Star Trek" fans are celebrating, but they also realize that her triumph may signal the end of the road for any possibility of a spin-off featuring her "Star Trek: Discovery" character.
Yeoh played Captain Philippa Georgiou, commanding officer of the USS Shenzhou, on Season 1 of "Star Trek: Discovery," later returning as a mirror universe version of the character. In 2019, Paramount announced that a "Discovery" spin-off focusing on Georgiou was in development, which will explore Section 31, the secretive wing of Starfleet that often engages in rogue, covert operations.
As recently as January, key figures at Paramount assured that a "Section 31" spin-off starring Yeoh was still in the works. But upon the news of Yeoh's Best Actress win for her work in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," fans of "Star Trek" took to Reddit to celebrate her win, where some lamented that the proposed "Section 31" series may never see the light of day now that Yeoh's career has reached a historic milestone. "Yeah that Section 31 show isn't gonna happen now," wrote u/Luis-Dante, bluntly.
Is Michelle Yeoh too big for her Starfleet britches?
Two things tend to happen after an actor wins an Oscar. The first is that they raise their quote, charging more for work, and the second is they become more selective about the parts they take. That means the questions at the center of Yeoh's "Section 31" are whether Paramount can afford her, and whether she's passionate about the project. "Star Trek" fans don't seem hopeful on either count. On Reddit, u/CeruleanRuin summed up the dilemma, writing, "Section 31 show is never getting made now, lol – unless she really wants to make it. Her price just went way up, and she can choose her next projects."
However, some fans were relieved at the dwindling possibility of "Section 31" getting made. The organization of Section 31, which was first mentioned in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," has been a controversial aspect of "Star Trek" lore ever since its introduction, as some fans feel that a secret, militaristic wing of Starfleet cynically ruins the utopian vision of the "Star Trek" franchise in which humanity has mostly evolved beyond such vulgarities. There was no love lost with u/damackies, who commented, "I'm fully onboard with Michelle Yeoh having a well deserved renaissance, and as an added bonus it might make her too expensive for Section 31, a show that really doesn't need to ever exist".
And yet some fans would still love to see a version of a Yeoh-helmed "Star Trek" series in which she plays the good version of Captain Georgiou. Wrote u/trucker-123, "... what would really be awesome is if they made a series just on Captain Philippa Georgiou (the good Michelle Yeoh from the first episode)." u/moosepuggle agreed, writing, "... I would LOVE to see a TNG-style show with Captain Georgiou in the chair!"