How “Star Trek: Section 31” beamed up that starry surprise cameo

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Star Trek: Section 31.

This surprise cameo in Star Trek: Section 31 is everything...and everywhere...all at once.

Following an initial flashback to a young Philippa Georgiou, the opening of the first Star Trek film of the Paramount+ era features a voiceover from someone named Control. She delivers a priority message to the Alpha Team Leader of Section 31, the black-ops division of Starfleet. The voice sounds familiar, but it's not until the very end of the film — after the team and their new recruit, Michelle Yeoh's Philippa, thwarts a galaxy-shattering plot involving a stolen Terran super-weapon and a figure from Philippa's past — that we see a face.

Jamie Lee Curtis arrives as Control via hologram. She informs Section 31 — including Al ok (Omari Hardwick), Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl), Quasi (Sam Richardson), and Fuzz's wife Wisp (Sven Ruygrok) — that, despite her better judgment, she's going to keep the team operational. "Has anybody been to Turkana IV?" Control asks the group, referring to the planet previously featured on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Related: Michelle Yeoh's 'unpredictable' Star Trek role inspired every facet of Section 31: 'You have a woman on fire' (exclusive)

The cameo marks a reunion between Curtis and Yeoh, who both won Oscars for their performances in 2022's Everything Everywhere All at Once. Star Trek: Section 31 director and executive producer Olatunde Osunsanmi tells Entertainment Weekly that Yeoh was instrumental in making the casting happen.

"We were discussing as producers who should play this part," he recalls. "We went through a few names, and then we landed on, 'What if it were Jamie Lee Curtis? Okay, well, who among us knows Jamie Lee Curtis? Oh yeah! Michelle knows Jamie Lee Curtis.' Michelle's like, 'Of course, I'll put in a good word.' But then what we realized simultaneously was that Alex's cousin" — the cousin of top Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman — "also represents Jamie Lee Curtis. So we were able to talk to her through two different avenues, and it all came together very easily."

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Osunsanmi reveals Curtis' role as Control was the first thing he shot. About two months before filming officially began on the movie in 2024, he flew to Los Angeles and shot her against green screen. "She only had a certain time period, so we had to get in and get out," he says. "So even before we fully prepped the movie, I'm there on a soundstage in L.A. with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I'm talking to one of my heroes."

Related: Watch Jamie Lee Curtis recreate her iconic Perfect aerobics scene: 'A lot of thrusting'

The filmmaker, who previously worked on Star Trek: Discovery and is now directing for the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, praises the Paramount+ team for keeping this cameo under wraps for as long as they did. "They close ranks there," he remarks. "Then, on the ground level here with the crew [in Toronto], they've kept a lot of secrets over the years, whether it be Stacey Abrams [on Star Trek: Discovery], you name it!"

The Trek gatekeepers at Paramount+ have not announced a continuation to Star Trek: Section 31, available to watch now on the streaming platform, but that ending with Curtis' cameo clearly leaves the door wide open for some story continuation. Osunsanmi admits, "Conversations are always being had. At the end of the day, it's all up to the fans and the audience. If they really, really love [Section 31], then we'll be fortunate to do another, and the machine's in place to allow that to happen. There's also something to be said about these one-off movies because it allows us to explore different corners of the Star Trek universe one at a time without being beholden to a larger story of a series."

You heard him, fans. Get watching.

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