Summary
TheStar Trek: Section 31movie is just two months away from release, and Paramount+ is hyping fans up for the firstStar Trekmovie available exclusively on the streaming service. This week, the studio dropped a new video that takes fans through the history of Section 31, Starfleet’s morally ambiguous Black Ops division.
Paramount+first announcedtheSection 31movie, starring Michelle Yeoh as herStar Trek: Discoverycharacter Phillipa Georgiou, in April 2023. The movie replaced the in-development series that the studio announced shortly after Yeoh leftDiscovery. Production on the movie finally began in January of this year, and at New York ComicCon in October, the cast finally announced the release date – January 24th 2025.Section 31will follow a team of operatives, including Yeoh’s Georgiou, as they take on the jobs no one else wants to do to protect the United Federation of Planets and face their past mistakes at the same time.
The new video is mostly a primer onwhat Section 31 is, what the organization does, and an overview of the Black Ops organization’s missions that have saved the United Federation of Planets from harm and potential destruction.
Section 31 ThroughoutStar TrekHistory
The new video weaves together clips of Section 31’sprevious appearances in theStar Trekuniverse, from Lieutenant Malcolm Reed on the Enterprise-NX01 to Ash Tyler, Georgiou, and Leland on the U.S.S. Discovery to Sloan and his team of operatives on Deep Space Nine. Over the clips, a narrator explains that Section 31 exists to protect the Federation when external, or internal, threats are so extreme that they warrant extreme responses. The narrator also explains that Section 31 is as old as the Starfleet, and it was established by the original Starfleet charter.
Finally, the narrator provides an answer to the question fans have asked themselves since Section 31’s first appearance in the franchise –why does Starfleet need a Black Opsorganization? The justification for Section 31 that’s always used inStar Trekcanon is that there’s always dirty work to do behind the scenes to maintain peace throughout the galaxy and uphold the Federation’s noble ideals. Regardless of how hard Starfleet and the Federation commit to diplomatic relations and maintaining peace, there will always be some nefarious threat lurking that those organizations can’t deal with outright lest they betray their noble ideals. So, Section 31 is the answer.
What Do Fans Know About theSection 31Movie?
So far, fans have only gotten one trailer forSection 31. Released at San Diego ComicCon in July, the trailer begins with flashbacks to Georgiou as a young adult, intoning a monologue about the duties of an Emperor as scenes flash of her ascent to the highest position in theTerran Empire. When the trailer flashes back to the present, Alok Sahar (Omari Hardwick), the leader of the Section 31 taskforce Georgiou is on, tells her “the past always catches up with you.” So, fans know the movie has some connection to Georgiou’s horrific past as the Terran Emperor.
Earlier this month, Paramount+ releasedbrief character profilesfor each of the Section 31 team members. These revealed that the team consists of a human Mech, a Deltan, a Chameloid, and a Romulan or Vulcan, it’s unclear which, but given his character profile, fans are guessing Romulan. From an interview with two of the movie’s stars earlier this month, fans also learned that two of the movie’scharacters are Augments, with ties to the Eugenics War. So, it seems that confronting the past will be a major theme throughout the movie.
Star Trek: Section 31drops on Friday, January 24th, exclusively on Paramount+.
