Star Trek: Section 31 Movie, Galaxy Quest TV Series Announced

Paramount+ has announced that they have greenlit Star Trek: Section 31 movie starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh. In addition they have also developing a Galaxy Quest TV series. No release date on either but likely not until at least 2024. The movie does replace the long planned TV series that had been in an off and on status since Star Trek: Discovery season 1 re-introduced Section 31 and mirror universe character Emperor Philippa Georgiou.

The Galaxy Quest TV series is in its infancy as only the original film producer Mark Johnson is attacked to the series. The series will be based on the 1999 film that parodied Star Trek, other franchises and their fandoms. While much of the cast remains alive, I wouldn't be surprised if this will be reboot of the series with an entirely new cast.

While no explanation or other details were provided about the change to a Section 31 film, the reason is probably the usual reason - money. Paramount+, like all the streaming services, has significantly cut their production budget so projects are chosen with much more care. Since Section 31 has been promised for nearly five years now, I doubt the problem was lack of desire to do a TV series but the cost of hiring Michelle Yeoh for it. The actress just concluded the dream reward season that every actor wants but rarely gets, vacuuming up all the rewards. As a result the already in demand actress is now likely much busier and thus much more expensive to hire. Yeoh is in a position to do only the projects she has passion for and a TV series each year would mitigate the opportunities. The salary she would demand would be correspondingly high to offset those lost opportunities.  

The result is this compromise. Paramount and Yeoh get to fulfill their promise of a Section 31 something, even if its not in the form intended while doing it on schedule (likely just two to three weeks of filming for the actress) and cost both parties can work with. Also gives Paramount a chance to run an experiment to see if an occasional TV movie is another way forward for the Star Trek franchise, especially since a theatrical release has become a nonstarter between the many false starts and the budget they don't want to pay for.

Update: THR confirms that Yeoh's recent success along with desire to "enter the feature film event space" is behind shift. Their source also says "Section 31 is being envisioned as Mission: Impossible meets Guardians of the Galaxy." The general plan is a movie every two years for Paramount+. I suspect a theatrical release is in the cards if the final result warrants it.  Personally, I think Section 31 should be more James Bond in tone and approach but regardless this should be interesting if they can pull it off. No info on budget so exactly how "event" this will be remains unknown. If had to hazard a guess I suspect in the $20 million range, more or less the cost of four or so episodes of TV.