Here’s What the ‘Star Trek Section 31’ Cast Thinks About Their Characters [Exclusive]

We finally know when the long-awaited Star Trek: Section 31 movie is coming to Paramount+, and now we have some more insight about the cast of characters who’ll support Michelle Yeoh‘s Mirror Universe refugee Philippa Georgiou on her deadly mission. Collider’s Therese Lacson sat down with Section 31 stars Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, and Robert Kazinsky at New York Comic Con inside the Collider Studio to talk about their characters.

Hardwick, known for his roles in Power and Army of the Dead, talked about his character, Alak Sahar:

The thing that was most interesting while in the construction of this guy was perhaps learning that, and maybe [director
Olatunde Osunsanmi
] would smile only on this, me understanding that he was not as in control as he thought he was in control. He was not. It shows up a bit in his need for the team that he surrounded himself with, this team of motley bandits, if you will, who are now just stealing the hearts, hopefully, of all of the great Star Trek fans out there. Also within this space, this galactical space, Alak has been given this dubious task of leading this brigade of rogue bandits into a place where we’re still policing, we still are trying to keep the galaxy, the hands of which we wanna keep to the fire of being good and not so bad, but we go about it in such a rogue, bad, if you will, way.

He also explained how at times the character was both Osunsanmi and Paramount’s Star Trek showrunner Alex Kurtzman:

It was really interesting for me to play a guy who knew he couldn’t do that alone and knew that he needed to delegate as well as he delegated. So, as much as Alex Kurtzman and Olatunde — we know him as boss or Tunde — gave me the task of being that as much as they, of course, had the task of directing me into that same space. But Alak is them within the space of the film; Alak is Alex Kurtzman at times and Tunde at times, but equally understanding and recognizing what he lacks. That was really cool for me to learn about two or three weeks in of playing this guy, of like, “He’s not as in control as he thinks he’s in control.” And that was cool to bring to Michelle Yeoh’s Georgiou’s “I’m in total control.” Her thoughts and her movement within that space as a character is that of being in total control, and Alak begs to differ, but often times she’s right. So, that was a cool surprise for me.

Meanwhile, Hannibal‘s Kacey Rohl discussed her character, an already familiar character future Starfleet captain, Rachel Garrett:

She is the Starfleet component of this wild world we’re in. What was very cool about playing her was that she’s somebody who’s
thriving
in that system, who takes great comfort in knowing exactly what’s expected of her, and what’s okay and what’s not okay, and lives and dies by that way of doing things. She has been plopped into this world that is chaotic, and there aren’t really any rules, and the expectations of what everybody does changes all the time. It was cool for me, particularly as a recovering perfectionist, to be reminded of the space that chaos can provide, the alternatives that not always following the rules can provide, that there are so many different ways to be good, and that you can define it for yourself in some ways. In fact, some of the best ways to be good are by breaking the rules.

Kazinsky, a veteran of Pacific Rim and The Gray Man, spoke about his powerhouse character, Zeff:

…when I first read it, I was like, “Okay, he’s the hammer.”— can’t touch this — “He smashes things. He’s just being powerful.” But what really got me over time — and it was mainly fed by these guys and the gifts that they would give me every day on set, started with me and O just really finding this relationship, and then it developed into other things — was just the heart of this guy, the love that they all have for each other, this little team, apart from Starfleet over here.

He compared the film’s cast with Star Trek ensembles of the past:

The love of this ragtag group of lunatics feeds into that whole thing that you learn as you get older, that it doesn’t really matter who you are, everybody has good in them, and everybody has bad in them. Some bad people can really make you laugh, and some good people can really make you cry. This is a show about the gray areas that we exist in and the need for those gray areas. What surprised me most was how much heart and how much Star Trek you can find in characters that aren’t as paragon-like as Will Riker or
Patrick Stewart
.

How will this cast of characters fit together – and will any of them come out of this alive? You’ll find out on January 24, 2025, when the film premieres on Paramount+.

Who Is Rachel Garrett?

Garrett first appears in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, a third-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Years after her appearance in Section 31, Garrett (played by Tricia O’Neil) is the captain of the USS Enterprise-C, the predecessor of the ship captained by Jean-Luc Picard. The two Enterprises meet when the D is accidentally thrown backwards in time to a crucial point in Federation history, as the C attempts to defend a Klingon ship from Romulans. They succeed, and the Federation keeps the peace with the Klingons for decades to come – but Garrett is killed, and the Enterprise-C is destroyed. However, her legacy persists for centuries – a statue of Garrett, dubbed “the red lady”, was a key plot point in the third season of Star Trek: Picard.

In addition to Yeoh, Hardwick, Rohl, and Kazinsky, Section 31 will also star Sam Richardson (Detroiters), Sven Ruygrok (One Piece), Humberly Gonzalez (Ginny & Georgia), James Hiroyuki Liao (Barry), and Miku Martineau (Kate).

Star Trek: Section 31 will premiere January 24, 2025, on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

In Star Trek: Section 31, Emperor Philippa Georgiou, joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past.

Director

Olatunde Osunsanmi

Writers

Craig Sweeney

Studio

CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment

Studio(s)

CBS

Distributor(s)

Paramount Pictures

Expand