Star Trek: Shazad Latif Comments on Section 31 Spinoff's Future

A possibly important player in the potential Star Trek: Section 31 spinoff series commented on the project that seems to have stalled out. During Star Trek: Discovery's first two seasons, Shazad Latif played Ash Tyler, formerly the Klingon called Voq, who underwent surgery that transformed him into a human and left him trapped that way. After Control took over the Section 31 organization, leading to Leland's death, and Discovery jumped into the future with Philippa Georgiou aboard, it seemed to fall to Tyler to forge a future for Starfleet's covert organization. While there was never any official casting announced for the Section 31 spinoff beyond Michelle Yeoh taking the lead role as Georgiou, some assumed Latif would be back as Tyler.

Latif has commented on those plans, suggesting he may be involved, but scheduling conflicts might have complicated things. He told Digital Spy that he's heard "slight rumblings" about the series, but "It's just been slight yeses, slight questions, but I've no idea. I think it's down to people's schedules."

At one point, a writer's room was in place for the Section 31 show with plans to film its pilot immediately after production on Star Trek: Discovery's third season wrapped and hopes to debut after the season's finale. The pandemic may have hampered those plans as Discovery wrapped principal photography right as lockdown protocols took effect in Ontario, Canada, where filming was to take place. Recently, Paramount+'s head of programming, Julie McNamara, suggested that the Star Trek schedule is full and Section 31 may not move forward until one of the five Star Trek series already in production ends its run.

"We're very careful about curating the pacing — the number of shows at any given time — and what those shows are, so that we make sure that it's always exciting when there's a new track show coming out," says McNamara. "Whether there's a show that comes up that feels additive and we should add that into the mix, or waiting for attrition of another Trek show, we feel good about where we are."

That leaves some hope, even if the production has suffered delays. Yeoh remains confident that Georgiou stepping through the Guardian of Forever's portal won't be the last time Star Trek fans see the former Terran Emperor.

"I think when she went through the portal that time, for me it's like saying... 'Goodbye until we meet again.' Because this is Star Trek, who knows?" Yeoh explained on an episode of The Pod Directive, Star Trek's official podcast. "One day Emperor Georgiou is going to find out that Michael Burnham is in dire straits or the other way around, and something has to be done. I don't know, but I'm just putting it out there. She walks through because Carl has said to her, 'You have another journey to undertake. And it's so obvious you have more things to do. It's not going to be a smooth ride. It will be bumpy. It will be full of heartaches. It will be full of pain.' But I think it's true. That is life… So I think there's so much more possibilities for Georgiou, and I know my executive producers and showrunners and writers have a lot more things in store for such an amazing character."

Star Trek: Discovery is streaming now on Paramount+.