Because the wait continues for Star Trek to return to the massive display screen, the franchise did ship its first streaming-exclusive film again in January. Sadly, the 2025 film launch Star Trek: Part 31, which introduced again Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery, was met with primarily detrimental essential reception. Greater than half a 12 months later, Yeoh has shared her ideas on the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive Part 31 being so poorly acquired, which included her mentioning how arduous it’s to please all audiences who’re testing a mission.
With a 22% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 16% Popcornmeter, it’s secure to say that Star Trek: Part 31 will go down as one in every of this franchise’s greatest misses, although hardly the primary. Michelle Yeoh was requested in regards to the film’s underwhelming efficiency by Collider, and right here’s what she needed to say:
Properly, as all issues go, you do your finest for what you imagine in. I feel there have been some issues that we might have completed higher, however on the entire, I assumed, Olatunde, our director, our showrunner, our author… As a result of we’re strolling a really tremendous stability between the Star Trek and Part 31, as a result of we wished to push the boundaries of what Star Trek: Part 31 is about, however actually being so respectful to the Star Trek world. So, I feel we treaded fastidiously.
Initially Star Trek: Part 31 was going to be a TV spinoff following Philippa Georgiou, a Mirror Universe tyrant who got here to the Prime Universe not lengthy after her Prime doppelgänger died, after she exited Discovery throughout Season 3. Ultimately although, it was determined to show Part 31 right into a film as an alternative, with Olatunde Osunsanmi directing and Craig Sweeny writing the script. The story noticed Georgiou now working within the time interval between The Authentic Collection and The Subsequent Technology, and teaming up with characters like Omari Hardwick’s Alok, Sam Richardson’s Quasi and Kacey Rohl’s Rachel Garrett, future captain of the USS Enterprise-C.
Whereas Michelle Yeoh acknowledged that Star Trek: Part 31 might have been improved in some areas, she additionally acknowledged how the forged and crew had been treading a really tremendous line with this manufacturing. Not solely did this exploration of the group that carries out covert operations for the United Federation of Planets must really feel prefer it belonged within the Star Trek franchise, nevertheless it additionally needed to carry a singular vitality to make it accessible to newcomers and stand out from the opposite motion pictures and TV exhibits. The actress continued:
However I feel visually, the characters that we constructed and the rapport that we had with one another was superb. Each time I end a film or one thing, I all the time suppose, ‘I might have completed higher,’ so it’s nothing new. That’s the way you all the time should suppose to enhance your self and to hopefully be higher the subsequent time. But it surely’s very arduous to please your whole viewers all the time.
It’s true, making motion pictures and TV exhibits are arduous, and even the critically-acclaimed ones may have detractors. Nonetheless, given all these detrimental reactions to Star Trek: Part 31, one thing tells me there gained’t be a subsequent time for this nook of the franchise. Possibly Michelle Yeoh might reprise Philippa Georgiou elsewhere, however I don’t see a Part 31 sequel being greenlighted given the primary film fared.
So then what does the way forward for Star Trek on movie appear to be? Properly, Star Trek 4, i.e. the subsequent installment within the Kelvin timeline, stays in growth, and an origins film was additionally introduced in April 2024. The latter was as soon as anticipated to be launched in 2025, however clearly that gained’t occur, nor does it appear to be it’ll be prepared in time for the 2026 motion pictures calendar.