Star Trek: Discovery star offers update on long-awaited Section 31 spin-off

Star Trek Discovery
(Image credit: CBS All Access/Netflix)

Star Trek: Section 31 is a long-touted but still unproduced spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery. Set to star Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou from the main series, and featuring the titular behind-the-scenes organization, the show has been left on the backburner while newer spin-off Star Trek: Strange New Worlds pushed ahead. 

Now, one of Discovery's stars has weighed in on why that's the case. Actor Shazad Latif, who memorably played Ash Tyler in the first two seasons of the show, says there's been "slight rumblings" on Section 31's future but nothing concrete.

"It's just been slight yeses, slight questions, but I've no idea," the actor told Digital Spy. "I think it's down to people's schedules."

While at some point in 2020, Section 31 had a writers' room, in February 2021 Paramount Plus exec Julie McNamara said there are still "conversations" about the show. A Variety report suggested the service wouldn't add new Trek shows to the rotation until one of the five currently in production – Picard, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and Prodigy – ends their run. 

Akiva Goldsman, one of the producers working on Star Trek: Picard season 2, was asked back in March if Section 31 is still happening. "I don't know. I believe so," he said. 

Section 31, then, feels like it's in limbo for the time being. 

Analysis: Is this enough Star Trek?

Five shows is a lot of Star Trek – and the reason we're still excited about the upcoming schedule is that the series are different enough from each other to really stand out. Discovery is the flagship Trek show, and it takes some big swings in terms of storytelling. Picard is more of a character piece about its aging leading man. 

Strange New Worlds, meanwhile, promises classic Trek adventures with familiar characters. Prodigy is a CG animated series from some of the minds behind Netflix's acclaimed Trollhunters series. And Lower Decks, meanwhile, is an animated comedy – and really couldn't be more different from the others.

That's a pretty robust schedule. It's hard to tell if Trek has the same mileage for franchise extensions as the MCU does, for example – to us, this feels like the right balance. After all, at a certain point, the volume of shows will probably stop moving the needle on getting subscribers to sign up to Paramount Plus, which is ultimately the reason they each exist.

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.

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