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A lot has changed for Michelle Yeoh since she first walked onto our screens as Captain Philippa Georgiou in the Star Trek: Discovery television series seven years ago.
Already a star, her Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) catapulted her to even greater heights in Hollywood.
After dazzling audiences in the big-screen adaptation of the musical Wicked, Yeoh is donning her Starfleet boots once again in Star Trek: Section 31, reprising her role as the complex Philippa Georgiou we love to hate.
“Star Trek is and will always be part of me,” Yeoh says, and she has always wanted to revisit her role as Philippa Georgiou and delve deeper into her story.


In Star Trek: Discovery, Yeoh embraced a dual role: the virtuous Federation Captain Georgiou and her mirror-universe counterpart, the ruthless Empress Georgiou.
For Yeoh, playing a villain is an irresistible draw. “I felt so strongly about this character.” Yeoh says that she wanted to explore what might happen next in her journey.
After the power-hungry Empress Georgiou finds herself in the Prime Universe, her moral compass shifts slightly. She becomes a wary ally of the Federation, eventually joining the shadowy Section 31.
However, her dark past ensures she remains an enigma to those around her.
“I guess with Philippa Georgiou I can do all the things that I’ve always wanted to do but can’t really do in real life,” Yeoh says, laughing. “It’s liberating!”

However, she adds that she attempted to keep her character grounded, and avoid creating a caricature of evil, because she carries so much emotional baggage. She lives “a very, very lonely existence”.
In Star Trek: Section 31, Georgiou leads a ragtag team on a high-stakes mission to secure a devastating secret weapon. Along the way, she confronts her past in unexpected ways.
The high-octane film, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, evokes more of a Jason Statham vibe than a traditional episode of the long-running space opera set aboard the Starship Enterprise.
But fans will be thrilled by the nods to the franchise’s history – keep an eye out for a certain Rachel Garrett reference.
Yeoh, known for her fearless stunts in Police Story 3: Supercop and as a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies, relished the chance to bring Philippa’s fighting style to life.

“Philippa Georgiou is a walking weapon. You know, every part of her can be (used as a weapon). Her nails, her choker ... you don’t know where (it will come) from.”
Initially conceived as a series running parallel to Star Trek: Discovery, Section 31 morphed into a stand-alone film.
Yeoh hints this might not be her last outing as Georgiou.
“Whenever you do something so special, you hope that it will have more life,” she says, “which only means that what you’ve started is something the rest of the world is craving for as well.”


Michelle Yeoh, back in Star Trek: Section 31, says space opera ‘will always be part of me’

Emilia Perez leads Oscar nominations with 13; Wicked, Conclave, Anora also get nods

Who is Bob Dylan’s media-shy grandson, James Dylan? The accomplished photographer is editor-in-chief of an art and culture magazine he co-founded with Richard Avedon’s grandson

Netflix’s The Night Agent is back, but who is Gabriel Basso? The all-action actor skydived into an NFL game to promote season 2, played J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy and got his break in Super 8

American cinema

Michelle Yeoh attends a discussion about her new film Star Trek: Section 31 at 92NY in New York. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Actor Michelle Yeoh backstage at The 92nd Street Y in New York, where she took part in a discussion about her new film for Paramount+, Star Trek: Section 31. Photo: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Star Trek: Section 31 director Olatunde Osunsanmi (second from left) is flanked by cast members Robert Kazinsky (left), Michelle Yeoh and Omari Hardwick at The 92nd Street Y in New York. Photo: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Michelle Yeoh discusses the Paramount+ film Star Trek: Section 31 at The 92nd Street Y in New York. Photo: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

How ‘middle class’ Hong Kong movie studio D&B Films became one of the most respected

Cynthia Rothrock (left) and Michelle Yeoh in a still from Yes, Madam! (1985), made by D&B Films, a studio founded by watch retailer Dickson Poon, who would go on to marry Yeoh. Photo: Handout

Paul Chun (centre) in a still from The Lunatics (1986). Photo: Handout

George Lam (left) and Sammo Hung in a still from The Owl vs Bumbo (1984). Photo: Handout

Dickson Poon, executive chairman of luxury goods distributor Dickson Concepts, in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Chow Yun-fat (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from Love Unto Waste (1986). Photo: Handout

Chow Yun-fat and Cherie Chung in a still from An Autumn’s Tale (1987). Photo: Handout

Michelle Yeoh and Dickson Poon during their wedding at the Hilton Hotel in 1988. Their marriage ended in 1992. Photo: SCMP

Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh says not being able to have kids ‘biggest sadness’ of her life

Michelle Yeoh arrives at the 10th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on April 13 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden awards the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Michelle Yeoh during a ceremony at the White House on May 3. Photo: AP

Star Trek’s George Takei on his life’s mission: to tell his Japanese-American story as often as he can

In his new children’s book, Star Trek actor George Takei details the three years he spent in internment camps as a child during the second world war. Photo: Getty Images

American troops supervise the movement of Japanese-Americans from their homes to camps during World War II. Photo: Getty Images

The cover of Takei’s book.

Japanese-American girls parade with a Liberty Bell float while being held in an internment camp. Photo: Getty Images

Japanese–American citizens being checked into an internment camp. Photo: Getty Images

The Star Trek cast during a news conference in Los Angeles in 1988. Photo: AP

What killed Bruce Lee? 4 leading theories medical and martial arts experts proposed after his shock death 50 years ago in July, 1973

Bruce Lee on the set of “The Big Boss”. Lee died two years after the movie’s 1971 release, and in the years since, competing theories have been posited as to what exactly killed the martial arts star.  Photo: Yau Leung

Bruce Lee in a still from “Fist of Fury” (1972).

Lee with Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. The two spent time together soon before Lee’s death.

Bruce Lee in a still from “Enter the Dragon” (1973). Photo: TNS

 Lee circa 1970. He had “chronic fluid intake” by virtue of his alcohol- and juice-based diet. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Star Trek: Discovery spin-off film sees Oscar winner reprise her dual role as the virtuous Captain Georgiou and ruthless Empress Georgiou


Star Trek: Discovery spin-off film sees Oscar winner reprise her dual role as the virtuous Captain Georgiou and ruthless Empress Georgiou.
