It was almost a decade since a feature film was released under the Star Trek umbrella, which isn’t surprising as Star Trek Beyond, despite being a critical hit, was considered a commercial failure due to its massive budget. For better or worse, the wait finally ended with the Michelle Yeoh-led Star Trek: Section 31, which was released as a Paramount Plus exclusive in January.
But before leading her own Star Trek feature, Yeoh feared her character, Captain Philippa Georgiou, might meet a swift end, given the growing influence of Game of Thrones at the time.
Michelle Yeoh was concerned about potential GOT influence on her Star Trek debut
Before the show dropped the ball with the final season, nothing compared to the hype surrounding Game of Thrones. Unsurprisingly, as a result, many IPs attempted to follow suit regarding its political intrigue and high body count at the time. Michelle Yeoh, who made her Star Trek debut as a guest star, feared the GOT influence might end up having a say in the character’s fate.
She recalled (via Independent):
I remember being asked to join the Star Trek family; the first thing I said was, ‘You’re not going to kill me off, right?’ This was in that period where everything [wanted to be] Game of Thrones. And then there was silence. And they go, ‘Oh, yeah, we do.’ But it’s science fiction. Anybody can come back, right?’
Fortunately, she did come back as Emperor Georgiou (mirror), whose story eventually translated into a recent feature release.
Michelle Yeoh’s Star Trek movie was initially penned as a TV show
Interestingly, the movie, which Yeoh described as “Mission: Impossible in space”, was originally penned as a TV show. According to executive producer Alex Kurtzman, it was the pandemic that pushed them to transition into a feature-length release, and from the very beginning, they were adamant about getting Olatunde Osunsanmi on board.
He said (via Screen Rant):
Originally, this was going to be a television show. And then the pandemic hit, and everything changed overnight, so we decided we were gonna do a movie. Right out of the gate, I was like, well, if we’re gonna do a movie, Tunde has to direct it, because he’s amazing.
Unfortunately, Star Trek‘s return to movies wasn’t as triumphant as fans were hoping for, but this didn’t stop Kurtzman from coming to its defense.
Star Trek: Section 31 is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
