Director Olatunde Osunsanmi Takes Star Trek Into New Directions With a Film Based on Section 31

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 08 February 2025 10:01

Written by Brad Balfour

The Paramount+ made-for-streaming feature “Star Trek: Section 31” gives “Star Trek” a new spin through its tone, fast pace and range of new characters. As the franchise embarks on a new direction, the famous “Star Trek” quote — “To boldly go where no one has gone before” — takes on a fresh turn.

As directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, with a screenplay by Craig Sweeny and story by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, the film brings back actor Michelle Yeoh to reprise Emperor Philippa Georgiou from the “Star Trek: Discovery” series. It is focused on the clandestine Starfleet organization Section 31 which, in “Star Trek” lore, is a future spy agency like an amped-up CIA.

The crew is a mix of previously known characters and fresh faces. Its pace is revved up, the ships are flashy/sleek and various species with complicated back stories propel the film.

Combining a spy thriller with futuristic action, “Star Trek: Section 31” centers around a team of Section 31 agents who recruit Georgiou to help them stop a dangerous new weapon. In the “third season of Star Trek: Discovery,” the former emperor was sent back in time by the Guardian of Forever where she ended up in the early 24th century, running a nightclub located outside of Federation space. Much about the early 24th century remains a mystery, and “Section 31” doesn’t spend much time answering questions.

The film opens with a flashback to Georgiou’s childhood, setting up a focus on her redemption arc. There’s so much crammed into this fairly short film with lots of characters and story arcs that it inevitably leaves open many sequel opportunities. 

In several “Star Trek” series, Section 31 is mentioned multiple times as a covert organization outside Starfleet normal operating process [sort of like Elon Musk and DOGE]. This agency is meant to operate surreptitiously, and that it did throughout the “Star Trek” continuum — especially with “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

Filmmaker Osunsanmi, the man assigned to turn out this film focused on Section 31, is known for work on the horror film, “The Fourth Kind” and the TNT series, “Falling Skies.” His other TV directing credits include “Under the Dome,” “The Last Ship,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Minority Report,” “Gotham” and “Blindspot.” From there, he went on to direct several episodes of “Star Trek: Discovery” and now, a self-contained feature, “Star Trek: Section 31.”

Born October 23, 1977, the tall sci-fi fan’s parents had immigrated to the States from Nigeria. After graduating with a Masters of Fine Arts from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, his first cinematic foray was a short film, “Etat,” that he wrote and directed. It explored the 1970s political climate of his parents’ native Nigeria. He then made “The Cavern” (originally released as “WIthIN”), a 2005 horror film.
The following exclusive interview was conducted with Osunsanmi by phone shortly after the film premiered in New York City.

Q: Were you always a “Star Trek” nerd”? Or did you start as a science fiction nerd first and then move over to Star Trek”? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: I was always a “Star Trek” guy, because I have been watching the show literally since I was 10 years old — or somewhere between 10 and 13. Are you familiar with KCOP? It used to exist way back when. 

Q: Was that a channel out there on the West Coast? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: When KCOP used to be a thing, it was channel 13. I must have been like 10 years old. I would watch TNG, and that was a big deal for me, seeing Geordi [LaForge — the character played by LeVar Burton on “Star Trek: Next Generation”]. I just felt like in that particular world of “Star Trek,” I belonged. I was growing up in Orange County, and at the time, I was usually the first Black person a lot of these kids would meet. I remember going to first grade in public school — I had been in a private school until then. My parents couldn’t afford it anymore so I went to first grade, and the kids were shocked.

They were turning over my hand to see that it was a different color on the inside of my hand than the outside of my hand. My experience in Orange County was always that of being The Other. At the time, as you know, kids are curious, and that’s okay. But I still had this experience of being the other, and by watching “Star Trek,” I was like, “Wow, all the humans are just human. They’re not black or white, they’re just humans.

I thought it’d be really cool to live in a future like that. That’s how I fell in love with “Star Trek”, and then I also fell in love with it all. I’ve always been a big fan of whiz-bang, futuristic devices and technology like warp [drives] and such. I always loved that there was this future where we could go to other planets, meet alien beings and go on adventures you’d never be able to experience here.

The final thing was that it was just really cool. It was always so optimistic and fun, a beacon of light that I carried with me. I watched TNG as the rest came out — “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager” and so on. I was a big fan of all of those. I had to go back and watch “TOS.” Actually, I didn’t remember any of the “TOS” as an adult, so I went back and watched all three seasons. 

Q: We share the same experience of watching “Star Trek” as it happens. That’s an important thing. Rather than going back and seeing it all as one long collective experience, I saw it as it evolved. You saw it as it evolved, as well.

Olatunde Osunsanmi: It’s a different experience sitting with each episode as it happens. After you watch the whole season, and the whole series, it stays with you for year after year after year. There’s no way to remember, at least not for me, every single episode that I’ve watched. But there are those few that stick out, and they sit with you, They form a certain amount of your values. 

Q: Exactly. How much did that inform you in the decision to get involved with the “Star Trek” universe? Obviously, you’ve had an evolution. You went from making movies to making genre movies to finally getting involved with one of the series. How would you describe your evolution? Was it a logical evolution? What decisions led to that evolution?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: The evolution of getting to “Star Trek?” 

Q: Getting through this sequence of filmmaking, getting to express what was creatively in you from the beginning. It needed to be expressed through the experience of filmmaking. 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Oh, you mean from being a kid to now? I have two early memories as a child. One is of me being in the kitchen, trying to get juice from the fridge and dropping the glass container. The juice spread everywhere. My mom walked into the kitchen and I ran out. A close second, or it might even be the first memory, is me as a kid sitting on my mother’s lap, on her balcony, looking up at the stars and her singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” For whatever reason, I’ve always been fascinated with the stars.

Then I went to Nigeria, which is where my parents are from. I met my grandfather for the first time. He was a photographer for [Ibrahim Babangida] and Sani Abacha who, at the time, had been the dictators of Nigeria. He was the state photographer. Whoever happened to be in office or in power, he was the photographer for them. He had no political affiliation with them, but he was the in-house state photographer. He took me into his dark room and showed me how he developed pictures.

I’ll never forget the one thing he told me at the time. By now, I’m seven years old. He told me every image you capture is not just the image … you’re trying to capture the emotion. That stayed with me throughout the course of my career. The experience really impacted me, looking at all the photos my grandfather took. When I first went to college, I thought I wanted to be a novelist. Then, I started to think about it. I was like, “Man, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could actually show people what’s in my mind instead of having to continuously describe it.” I made the switch from California Lutheran University to Chapman which had a film program with wonderful teachers and professors.

Filmmaking was very intuitive for me, both the writing of it and the directing. For whatever reason, telling stories with the filmmaking, the cinematic language, just instantly made sense. I attribute that to my experience with my grandfather back in Nigeria. One of the first movies I made was a science fiction movie called “The Fourth Kind.” It’s an alien abduction movie, very much grounded in sci-fi because I do believe there are UAP and UFOs out there.

One of the biggest questions is, “If they’re out there, what the hell are they doing here?” This love of UAP and UFOs dovetails with my love of science fiction –– “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” as well. I pull from them and form ideas. I don’t know if that answers the question, but that’s who I am creatively. Those are my influences.

Q: At what point did you think you could join the “Star Trek” universe?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: That was a surprise. I was directing a show called “Bates Motel” starring Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore. I got a call from my agent, Felicia Prinz, over at Verve. She said, “Hey, there’s a new ‘Star Trek’ TV show that’s starting up and they want to talk to you about producing and directing it.” I said, “How competitive is that?” She: “My agents said that it’s extremely competitive.” I said, “Okay, I’ll give it a shot because ‘Star Trek’ is one of my first loves.”

I go in to meet with showrunners Aaron Baiers and Alex [Kurtzman] over at Secret Hideout. We get to know each other in the interview. Interviews are [unpredictable]. Everybody’s been through an interview in their life and you never quite know how they go. It lasted just over an hour so they got to know me well. I’m used to interviews lasting anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes as a director. This was an extraordinarily long one that I’d been a part of up to that point. 

Q: Executive producer Alex Kurtzman, was there at that interview? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Yeah. I didn’t get to talk to him much because there were like five others, but he was there. Then I hung up the phone and I swear, 14 minutes later, I got a call from my agents and they said, “If you were offered the job, would you take it?” I said, “Well, heck yeah, guys. I mean, come on, ‘Star Trek.’ Yeah, I’ll take the job.” They said, “Well, they want to make you an offer.”

I said, “Holy shit! Okay, let’s go.” That was one of the happiest days of my life. I took the job. I had one more day of shooting on “Bates Motel”. Then I flew down to Los Angeles for a cast read of the “Discovery” pilot episode. 

Q: You were there with the pilot episode, That’s great. You got into the ST universe right from the start. 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Right from the start, man. It was a whirlwind cast reading. From there, I went to visit a couple of different VFX houses that we had in LA. The very next day I got on a plane to Toronto and met all the teams up there and never looked back.

Q: Obviously, with “Bates Motel,” there were certain special effects, but it’s rooted in the real world. Then you transition into making work that’s not real. You have to take into account a lot of other things. How was that? There’s various Bibles and such, but, as familiar as you might be with the universe, you have to step into something that has a long granular environment that’s totally beyond any normal filmmaking.

Olatunde Osunsanmi: You’re absolutely correct about that. The interesting thing about my journey that I left out, was that “Bates Motel” was just one of several different TV things I was doing at the time. After I did my movie, “The Fourth Kind,” the first episode of television I ever did, was for Steven Spielberg on a show called “Falling Skies.”

“Falling Skies” was a post-edit. Boy, was I spoiled. Steven knows how to treat his directors very well. [Actor] Will Patton, who was in “The Fourth Kind,” recommended me to Steven. Steven watches all of his directors before he hires them on his TV shows. It’s a unique thing. He watched “The Fourth Kind” and found it to be of a kindred spirit with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which he made. Obviously, I’ve been inspired by him all my life.

He said, “We can hire him and put him on the show.” So, I did an episode –– my first episode ever of television –– and boy was that wild. You’re prepping in seven days, shooting in eight days, it is fast! You have to think faster as a filmmaker than when you’re doing features. They brought me back because they felt it was successful. I did two episodes and then they brought me back again the following season to be the producing director on “Falling Skies.”

I got to cut my teeth on this huge, world-building show that was science fiction and post-apocalyptic. I understood, “Okay, these are the levers that have to be in place in order to get this massive machine running smoothly.” At the time, my mentor was Greg Beeman. He was so kind in transitioning because he was leaving the show. He left on his own and was so kind to show me all the ropes of what he had been doing as a producing director.

It was a nice, smooth transition for me. After “Falling Skies” came to its fifth and final season, I was doing different episodes of television as a visiting director. One of those was “Bates Motel.” When I got the call for “Star Trek” and arrived there, it still was the biggest thing I’d ever done ever –– period –– as far as the amount of world-building sci-fi.

The history is the hardest part of “Star Trek” because there’s so much of it. I understood: Okay, I’ve done this type of thing before, but I just have to scale it up by a factor of 10. There’s more money, tools, fans, history, more of everything. That was, I think for anybody stepping into the “Star Trek” universe, an OMG moment as far as what needs to be done. It definitely helps to have built a world before.

Q: Jumping ahead to “Section 31” and Michelle Yeoh… Whose idea was it for her to join “Star Trek: Discovery”? Was that something you had in mind or did they come to you and say, “We’ve been talking to Michelle Yeoh. What should we do with her?” Or, “Let’s have her do this.” How did that lead to this film?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Michelle joining “Star Trek: Discovery” happened before my time. I’d have to say that’s an Alex Kurtzman thing. By the time I joined “Discovery,” with that pilot episode, Michelle was already cast [and had] said yes. She tells a story of reading the scripts and realizing she died in episode two, only to come back later in the season from the mirror universe — and thinking that was fantastic. I got to meet Michelle obviously that first day at the cast read. That was just amazing because she was so warm and welcoming right away. We got to know each other really well.

I’ve directed more “Discovery” episodes than any other director. I got to know the cast very well. Also, I’m a producing director, so I’m there for all the episodes. It was a very warm set and the cast was very warm. That was because of Michelle, and also of Sonequa Martin-Green [she stars as Michael Burnham, a science specialist who eventually becomes Captain} who is just a terrific individual. Michelle and I got along really well. I directed a lot of her Section 31 episodes that were in “Discovery.”

Then, before the show even aired, she pulled Alex aside and pitched him the idea of doing a Section 31 [show] revolving around Philippa Georgiou. Alex said, “Sure, that sounds like a great idea, but ‘Discovery’ hasn’t aired it. Let’s see how ‘Discovery’ does first and then we can discuss ‘Section 31.’” “Discovery” did phenomenally well and obviously spawned a whole universe from “Strange New Worlds” to “Picard,” multiple animation series and now “Starfleet Academy.” “Discovery” really did its job as being the mothership of this new “Star Trek” universe and it also spawned “Section 31.” 

Q: With “Section 31,” you obviously followed the series. It was a concept within the new “Star Trek” universe that evolved. At one point, it’s just hinted at and then we begin to see agents start appearing. Finally, when “Deep Space Nine” aired, it really took form and became this whole thing. How far did you want to veer away from it as it was originally conceived? And how far did you want to build on it?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: My first real [knowledge of] the Section 31 organization was “Deep Space Nine.” There was this great character, Sloane. They gave us three different episodes with Section 31 that showed off the capabilities of what they could do. The closest I could think of was the Sloane character from Section 31. Later, it was a part of Leland in “Discovery.” Leland was a riff off that Sloane character in his bearing, seriousness, and the way he seemed to be spinning conspiracies. We did quite a bit about the Section 31 concept in “Discovery” that was very serious.

The idea for “Section 31” –– the movie with Michelle Yeoh –– was to do something that was a different flavor, a different shade of the rainbow, as Alex always likes to say. That could be for fans or an audience looking for something a little bit different. It was fun, and that was adventurous and wild. It mirrored Philippa Georgiou’s character and who she was in the story.

Q: It was ultimately conceived of as a self-contained movie, even though it does feel like an extended episode, off somewhere from the main story flow. How much did the idea of it as a separate movie … or how much did it function as being within the overall “Star Trek” universe. In your mind … the ultimate conception and creation of it? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: It started as a TV pilot. We were originally doing a series. We were essentially prepping the end of season two of “Discovery” while simultaneously prepping season one of “Section 31”, which was wild. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons — scheduling, and then COVID, and then the [writers/actors] strikes. Then Alex had this brilliant idea –– to make it a movie and take everything we learned in prepping the series and use those salient points to do a movie. It does fit firmly.

It can’t be ignored within the “Star Trek canon. It does fit. It is designed like that. At the end of the day, it pulls from everything we understand to be the history of “Star Trek” and it’s open-ended. It’s also important to understand that even though it’s a streaming movie, it never had the $200/$250 million budget of the big Paramount movie versions. It had a streaming budget — the budget of two pilot episodes.

I can’t thank CBS and Paramount Plus enough for how much support they’ve given us. If you’re an artist and want a supportive atmosphere, Paramount Plus/CBS is the place to be. That’s been my experience with them. At the same time, there str limits to what they could do. The crews we had here were incredible with very limited resources to create what you saw in the movie, “Section 31.”

Q: On the one hand, you’re making something that comes out of the continuum of “Star Trek,” yet it also functions like it’s one of the “Star Trek” movies versus “Star Trek” episodes because of the pacing. It was fabulous but there was some blowback. Where does it lead you as the next step? Does it lead you to another film? Do you want to create a whole new series? Do you want it to be re-insinuated into “Discovery?” Where do you go from here? 

Olatunde Osunsanm: We’ll continue to be inspired by whatever story we feel needs to be told. I know Michelle wants to do more, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. There’s a lot more stories to tell within this world. Alex has always been very careful about which stories he chooses to tell. I’ve also been very fortunate to have been able to tell the coolest versions of the stories that I’ve seen. We’ll just have to wait and see where the world takes us and continue to just feel inspired by it all. 

Q: This film is very fast-paced. There’s a lot of violence in it with a lot of weird elements like the little alien inside the body of a Vulcan, all those things. You do twists upon a twist, the sun, all that stuff. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but this recalls a bit of the new series of “Star Trek” films by J.J. Abrams where you get thrown off by it being an alternate universe. How much did you decide to ratchet it up and how much did you have to pull back?

Olatunde Osunsanmi: I’d have to credit Craig Sweeny who wrote the scripts for all the twists and turns. My job was to really sell all the red herrings to make you think, “Oh, it could be Zeph. Oh no, it could be Lieutenant Garrett. It could be, who knows who it could be?” It was really my job to sell each of those twists. One of the magical things about working in the “Star Trek” [universe] and working in multiple versions of the concept is introducing the cast to the world of “Star Trek” and seeing the way their eyes light up when they first walk on set. They realize, holy shit, this stuff is real.

That was the same thing with this cast. The first set that they walked on was the “Section 31” mission ship. They just couldn’t believe it. It was interesting having met them months before and then seeing them walk on the set and slowly start to inhabit each of their characters the longer we were on that set. Not just how they sound, but physically how they were walking and moving within the set.

Obviously, they read the script. They knew it quite well. I did a page turn with each of them before we started shooting and just went through each moment, each beat, each relationship and the behavior going back and forth because of the relationships they have with the other characters. You had asked about the reveals. Those reveals we worked on very carefully to make sure they landed for the audience. 

Q: It’s amazing how, even if you’ve done other genre series, there’s nothing like “Star Trek.” It changes people’s way of life because they know that will always be applied to them, no matter what else they do. How does that affect your thinking –– not only about your work in the “Star Trek” universe, but what you want to do next outside of it? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: “Star Trek” has been unbelievably good to me. The thing I love the most about “Star Trek” is that there’s always a challenge. Every episode — in this case, the movie — it’s hard to do. So, I’m forced to be the best version of myself in order to accomplish it. I think that’s a gift because before I did “Star Trek,” I thought I was operating at a terrific level. Then there’s me after I did “Star Trek.” Now I realize that “Star Trek” has pulled even more out of me than anything I’ve done before. Now that’s the level I’m operating at, which I think is a wonderful thing.

“Star Trek” introduces you and forces you to work at a high level in multiple genres –– sci-fi, action, drama, and a little bit of comedy. It forces you to be good at all of it. There’s no hiding. There’s no hiding in “Star Trek.” It’s a wonderful launchpad into whatever else I want to do because I love science fiction. And that’s where I live. That’s who I am. That’s what I do. I’m a science fiction director. The wonderful thing about being a science fiction director for me is, as I mentioned, it encompasses being an action director, being a drama director and being able to do comedy. It’s an umbrella that encapsulates all of those things. I’ll always be thankful to “Star Trek” for helping me sharpen my tools. 

Q: Here’s a geeky “Star Trek” fan question: “Who do you want to meet that you haven’t had the chance to meet in the ‘Star Trek’ universe?” Who do you want to sit and talk with and just geek out and not have anybody limit your time talking to them? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: Yeah, that’s easy. Avery Brooks.

Q: Avery Brooks? Interesting. 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: I’ve never met him. I just met LeVar Burton not too long ago at the Peabody Awards, but I don’t know anybody who’s within this modern-day version of “Star Trek”” that I’ve been in contact with that was on the show with him. I don’t know anybody that’s met him. I would love to meet him. Yeah, I’d love to pick his brain. 

Q: Would you cast him in a “Star Trek” that you’re doing? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: I’d certainly love to do that. I would just love to cast him in a movie, period. I think he is just an exquisite actor who did a lot of things in his own way that resonated with me in a real way. 

Q: There’s that episode where he plays a science fiction writer in this alternate universe. Do you remember that episode? 

Olatunde Osunsanmi: It’s just barely at the fringes of my mind.  How do I explain this? The intensity of his gaze was so palpable to me as a kid and also now as an adult, where I’m just like, Dude, there’s just such gravity there! This guy: don’t fuck with this guy. At the same time, this is the captain I want taking care of me. I want this guy to be my captain. I believe I feel safe with him, but never cross him. Never cross this guy. There was such intelligence there with everything he did that I just really respected him.

“Star Trek: Section 31” has been streaming on Paramount+ since January 24, 2025.