NYCC 2024: Star Trek: Section 31 Cast & Director Preview Michelle Yeoh's Space Adventure

The Star Trek universe continues to grow with the upcoming Paramount+ original movie, Star Trek: Section 31. The character of Phillipa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh, was first introduced in the debut season of Star Trek: Discovery, as was her Mirror Universe counterpart, Emperor Georgiou of the Terran Empire. Her character was last seen in Discovery’s second season finale, which teased her introduction to the clandestine world of Section 31. Now, after years of false starts and a shift from a TV series to a feature film, Georgiou is back in Star Trek: Section 31.

Though many of the plot details are being kept under wraps, the film, due out on January 24, sees Georgiou forced to team up with a group of space vigilantes led by Omari Hardwick’s Alok Zahar and his trusted lieutenant, Zeph, played by Rob Kazinsky. The cast also includes Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett, a character familiar to Trek enthusiasts, as she will one day become Captain of the Enterprise-C, as seen in the classic Next Generation episode, “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

At New York Comic Con 2024, Screen Rant sat down with Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Rob Kazinsky, and Section 31 director Olatunde Osunsnmi, a franchise veteran who directed episodes across all five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. The group discussed their characters and their fondness for the Star Trek universe. They also spoke about working with the Oscar-winning Michelle Yeoh, and teased the potential for more Section 31 stories beyond this particular movie.

The Crew Of Star Trek: Section 31 Introduce Their Characters

“She bombs into this wild world that is unlike anything she’s ever experienced.”

New York Comic-Con, welcome. I’m Zak from Screen Rant and we’re here with the cast, and the boss of Star Trek: Section 31. First off, introduce yourselves and tell me your characters. Tell me a little bit about what we can expect from your guys in the film.

Omari Hardwick: Speaking of guys, we gotta go ladies first!

Kasey Rohl: I guess that’s me. Hi, I’m Kasey Rohl, and I play Rachel Garrett, who has existed before. Big, big boots. I love it. She’s amazing. She’s Starfleet, and she bombs into this wild world that is unlike anything she’s ever experienced, and she goes on a real journey. That’s my pitch. Yeah? Did I pass? Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Omari Hardwick: I play Alok Zahar, trying to figure out my issues onscreen. Not as Omari, but as Alok Zahar. As Olatunde, the big boss, said from the gate, this man has been around for long enough to not only have gained experiential wisdom, but also, he has a lot of pain from his past. So he’s trying to figure that out, and part of the healing, reckoning, redemptive movement, if you will, that he’s going through is, he’s created this agenting group full of a motley crew of folks, individuals, who are policing all the galaxies, and we do it in a rogue way, and then we bump into Michelle Yeoh’s character, Georgiou.

She is out there in space somewhere. That’s why you guys don’t see her on the couch right now. She’s in space. And to my left is Casey, as she said, big boots. Casey plays the character who is there for policing me, and it takes me to Rob who plays my… He keeps saying left hand, but I think he’s my left and my right hand. He’s the start, the inception of this group I created. The first pick or first selection was Rob’s character, Zeph.

Rob Kazinsky: I mean, that sums me up pretty accurately, yeah. I am the most talented member of the crew, (laughs) the strongest…

Kacey Rohl: The most humble…

Rob Kazinsky: The dumbest, the hungriest. Yeah, I play Zeph, a half man in a bodysuit, left hand, right hand of Alok Zahar that will run through, smash through, and keeps Rachel Garrett in line…

Kacey Rohn: Oh, is that what you think you do?

Rob Kazinsky: …As best as he can. He fails horribly.

Rob, we’ve talked about your character’s particular cybernetic enhancements. Is he human? Can you say if he’s any kind of, oh, I don’t know, cy-“Borg”?

Rob Kazinsky: He’s 100% a human. Craig Sweeny and I came up with a very detailed, long backstory for him. It is a cybernetic suit that he is wearing, filled with enhancements that he’s created and added over the years to help increase his mobility due to injuries incurred by his own actions.

Kacey Rohn: Craig Sweeny, our brilliant writer.

Director Olatunde Osunsanmi On Star Trek: Section 31’s Place In The Wider Star Trek Universe

“if the audience loves it as much as we love it, and I’m really excited for them to see it, there is a wonderful potential to go on.”

Olatunde, you’re returning from having worked on Star Trek: Discovery, a show that has planted so many seeds that we’ve seen grow into their own projects. Tell me a little bit about nurturing this sapling into a film.

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Discovery does have its hands in a few different places. About five years ago, just over five years ago, we started this journey as a TV show. And I got invited to join by Alex Kurtzman and Paramount+. And we kept trying to mount it, and it kept falling apart, and it took a lot of twists and turns. And all along the way, Michelle Yeoh stuck with it, stood with it. And then we ended up in this form, as a movie. And it was the best version of all the different forms. And Craig Sweeny wrote these unbelievable characters. And because of that moment in time, we were able to cast this unbelievable cast.

If not for Michelle really just being the steward all the way through each iteration, we wouldn’t be here right now. And this has definitely been very special to me because it is a two-hour movie, beginning to end. It’s been great getting to know the cast, some of you see here, some who aren’t here, that hopefully will touch you and touch the audience in as emotional ways they touched me with what they did.

I don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse, as it were, or whatever the saying is, but do you see this as the first in a series of movies, something of a pilot for a series, or is this a one-off story, ‘a Star Trek story?’

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Well, this is a very uncomfortable question (Laughs). The wonderful thing about what Craig did with this script, and the wonderful thing about what Alex does with this iteration of Star Trek that he’s shepherded through, is… Each series, and now this movie, is so unbelievably layered with character, with the world, and so if the audience loves it as much as we love it, and I’m really excited for them to see it, there is a wonderful potential to go on.

Omari Hardwick: Potential’s a good word.

Olatunde Osunsanmi: There’s a million stories that could be birthed from Section 31, so I hope you love it.

Kacey Rohl: Fingers crossed!

Section 31’s Cast Respond To The Star Trek Fandom

“The first interracial kiss, the first moment where people aren’t supposed to do what they did, was done on Star Trek.”

I’m excited to see it. I grew up watching the original series with my dad. What is your background history with Star Trek? Were you fans? Have you not seen it yet?

Kacey Rohl: Rob, you want to start that one off?

Rob Kazinsky: Star Trek is, like, the big thing in my life, and has been since I was a little kid. I grew up on The Original Series movies, not The Original Series. My mother was a huge Trek fan. So, I grew up on all of that and was obsessed with it. TNG kind of became a formative moral guide for my life, of how to be a good human being. It was all Next Generation. And then Star Trek has just continued to be such a… There’s never been a time in my life where I’m not watching Star Trek, and then when I finish and I go back to the beginning and start again and go through it. It’s my comfort show. I have the Starship hum, thanks to Kacey, who taught me that existed. Now, it’s like my comfort thing, for going to sleep, is the Starship hum.

Kacey Rohl: It’s very good. I highly recommend it.

Rob Kazinsky: It’s my thing. And then I get to be a part of that world now! And it’s the best day every day.

Omari Hardwick: I have stated it. I stated it today, and I’ll say it again. It was a very interesting thing for me to find altruism within our industry on this job. And what I mean by that is so many dreams have been made. When you think about a Bahamian kid named Sidney Poitier, who’s working fields with his family, he’s not supposed to become, on paper, Sidney Poitier. Rest in peace. And we’ve all had our own respective levels of that. We’re all minorities in our own way. And I can say that as a Black American man, to my left is a woman, still a minority.

Behind me is this director who has colored me, and look what Tunde’s become to the steering of the ship, pun intended or perhaps not. But it’s been an amazing thing to be next to Rob and watch a little boy dream of being on Star Trek, and then being on the first set with him, when on the first set for himself, that dream is becoming a reality. That was crazy for me. I was more of a Star Wars guy, but I was absolutely a Star Trek kid. There’s no way to not be. You’re raised in the 80s. I was born in the 70s. There’s no way to get past it. I knew that the first interracial kiss, the first moment where people aren’t supposed to do what they did, was done on Star Trek. And so it was an interesting experience for me because I knew enough about it.

But man, was Rob the greatest of Cliff’s Notes, because he taught me every single thing I needed to know and then some, and I’m still learning even more. But shout-outs to Lucy and Desi Arnaz and Roddenberry and just all the fragmented pieces that make the amalgamation of the foundation which we now sit upon. So if TNG is acronym for The Next Generation, Tunde and Alex Kurtzman wanted me to be a part of a new acronym, which is TNG, The New Generation, and bringing with it young people who maybe didn’t rock out with Star Trek as much. Super honored to kind of bring them along and for a bunch of people to become Trekkers. Pretty amazing.

Kind of almost building upon that, on screen, can you tell me a little bit about your chemistry with Rob and about the dynamic that you have? Is it friendly? Is it boss and assistant?

Omari Hardwick: I think… That’s a really good question. I tend to go, I think just the genesis of everything in life is getting to know the people who are cast. Tunde made a great point: cast a great cast. But the people, they matter so much. And maybe me coming from sports, the big thing for me was dinners immediately. Tooney said it was abnormal that a cast got so close, but dinners were so necessary. And Michelle is Michelle. Super legendary, but also super busy because she’s a legend. So wherever I could in the first two weeks, it was Kacey, Humberly, Rob, Sam, Augusto, Tunde, when you could join us, James, and Miku even, who’s the younger cohort of ours. My whole thing was, get together to learn everybody.

I learned Rob as a person enough to then be able to inform a bit more about what Zeph, on screen, along with Alok, on screen, would be. So we loved each other before we started on day one. We kind of loved what each other’s story was. I knew about his Hollywood story up to that point. He knew about my Hollywood story up to that point. So we kind of built from there. There was no contentious moments. But it was absolutely, you know, the boss (Olatunde) hired me to boss! So there’s no way that I’m not bossing Zeph, but I also found that you don’t necessarily have to do that when somebody like Rob wants discipline. But let’s not get it twisted. You’re not about to control him. So I tried to make it where Alok doesn’t ever come across as he’s controlling Zeph, but Zeph almost knows how to finish his thoughts, or the sentences of Alok before he even has to say anything. I think that’s what we built upon.

Olatunde, this New Generation has such a variety of tones. I mean, we just talked to the Lower Decks crew, and that is a hilarious show. Discovery has its own vibe. Strange New Worlds, of course. Tonally, where does this show fall in the greater comedy, rollicking, rogue, pirate, vigilante adventure? Where is this show in Star Trek?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Well, that’s the amazing thing about what Alex has built out in this iteration of Star Trek. It does have all of these unbelievable flavors and all these unbelievable colors in the rainbow for different fans to access. And, you know, fans will have, “This is my favorite, and this is my favorite, and this is my favorite.” Well, if you want a wild ride that is, you know, jaw-dropping, twist and turns, blow your socks off characters that are doing things that maybe they shouldn’t do, plus a little bit of Starfleet with Rachel in there, that is still Star Trek, then this is the movie for you. It’s grear that it’s a movie. You know, we get in and out, and we surprise a lot of people with it, and then we keep it moving, you know. So I’m really hoping you enjoy it.

Star Trek: Section 31’s Cast & Director On Their Love For Michelle Yeoh

“She was an incredible dance partner. She’s a generous, beautiful giant.”

Our absent center today is, of course, Michelle. We’ve talked about her to an extent. Can you tell me a little bit, everyone, about shooting scenes with her, about trading notes, about developing your characters together? Tell me about working with her as a scene partner.

Omari Hardwick: So I guess day one, as Rob says, no egos were brought on this project, and his humility and modesty showed up in Rob showing up for us day one. So, day one of work, scene one, Alex Kurtzman and Olatunde gave us such a great lob. It was just a nice, simple, simple day of work between myself and Michelle and Rob joined. He came on set day one. Casey was there as well, just to be able to support us. And what I learned immediately was just the generosity.

To your question, she’s just super generous, wants everything to go in a direction of North Star and not negative or downward. She wants everything to go that way. Super proficient, obviously very athletic, to Kacey’s point, very balletic, and a genius at what she does. And so for me and her, it was talking about each other’s backstory, maybe trying to help each other create the Georgiou now because she’s already existed in Discovery. Alok is brand new.

She was very, very helpful along with the informative Rob in terms of the history of Trek. She was super aiding in me understanding who Alok was because our characters are damn near the flip side of the same coin. It’s a total “game recognizes game,” Avatar moment of “I see you, you see me.” And so it was amazing. It was amazing to be able to take the roller coaster ride on a film to this point that Tooni made where you’re not held within the parameters of Star Trek, just traditional Star Trek, but you can kind of get left and right and dance a bit. She was an incredible dance partner. She’s a generous, beautiful giant.

Kacey Rohl: I think what I’d like to contribute, too, is that she pulls everybody up. She demands such excellence from herself, and I think everybody, in being in her orbit, accesses their own excellence and delivers, and not from a place of fear, but from a place of joy and a love of what we get to do. We’re all living our dream jobs. And so I think I really experienced that. There’s no part of her that is ever phoning it in or is ever like, “I don’t really want to be here, but I’m here.” She’s stoked. She’s absolutely stoked.

Omari Hardwick: And a lot of laughter, always.

Kacey Rohl: Yeah, and just goofiness! Right? So it frees us all up in a different way, and it becomes playful. I think she encourages that in us all.

Olatunde Osunsanmi: I couldn’t agree more. It’s special, having worked with her over several years now and seeing that she’s the exact same person from when we started. She’s gone off, done other projects, come back. Same person, gone off, won an Oscar. Came back, same person.

Rob Kazinsky: I found her intimidating. (Laughs) I did! I mean, I got on set and I was like, that’s Michelle Yeoh! Actually, in my head I was like, that’s Philippa Georgiou. Whenever you’re working with a legend, there is a kind of thing of like, “I should go over and introduce myself and build a relationship and get to know this person.” And I go over there, and she was so silly. Just having the nicest time. The thing that I loved most about working with her, not necessarily her as a person, she’s wonderful as a human being, was that she loved Star Trek as much as I do.

And she really cared about getting this show to be as good as it could possibly be. And wanted every scene to be as good as it could possibly be, for no other reason than servicing the character of Philippa Georgiou and making Section 31 something really, really special. Because she cared so much, it made me, as not just the actor but as the fan, really, really happy that she was there every day.

Learn More About Star Trek: Section 31

In this Paramount+ exclusive movie event, Michelle Yeoh returns as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who was first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1. Star Trek: Section 31 centers on Yeoh’s character as she faces her past sins and is recruited by Starfleet’s secret division that protects the United Federation of Planets.

Check out our other NYCC 2024 interviews here:

Source: Screen Rant Plus

In this Paramount+ exclusive movie event, Michelle Yeoh returns as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who was first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1. Star Trek: Section 31 centers on Yeoh’s character as she faces her past sins and is recruited by Starfleet’s secret division that protects the United Federation of Planets.

Director

Olatunde Osunsanmi

Release Date

January 24, 2025

Studio(s)

CBS

Distributor(s)

Paramount Pictures

Writers

Craig Sweeney

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