Entertainment
Star Trek Nominated For Five Worst Of 2025 Awards
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Last year, Paramount released what the critics dubbed the worst Star Trek movie ever made: Section 31. The irony of this phoned-in prequel is that it starred Michelle Yeoh, a Hollywood legend fresh off winning the Best Actress Academy Award for her stunning work in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Now, her performance in Section 31 has been nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award (better known as a Razzie), further proof that starring in this stinker has actually damaged Yeoh’s career right when it was on the rise.
A little context: in Star Trek: Discovery, Yeoh performed as both the heroic Captain Georgiou and her counterpart, an evil Emperor from the Mirror Universe. The evil incarnation was eventually redeemed, joining Section 31 (Starfleet’s secret equivalent of the CIA) in the name of using her special set of skills for the greater good. In the Section 31 movie, she reprised this role, and her character had to lead a team assigned to save the galaxy from a dangerous weapon connected to Georgiou’s dark past.
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall
The movie quickly gained a reputation as the worst Trek movie ever made, with an astonishingly low 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, the film has been nominated for five Razzies; for those who don’t know, the Razzies are used to dubiously “honor” some of the worst films ever made for their very specific shortcomings. In this case, Section 31 was nominated for Razzies that include Worst Screenplay, Worst Director (for Olatunde Osunsanmi), and Worst Picture.
Sadly, Michelle Yeoh (the indisputable star of the film) was nominated for Worst Actress. Before Section 31 came out, many Star Trek fans (mostly those who love Discovery) expressed hope that an actor of her caliber might be able to elevate a movie that most of us suspected would be mediocre. Instead, this awful film took her down with it, and Yeoh’s embarrassing performance in this direct-to-movie dreck may very well impact her career.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Comm Badge
Michelle Yeoh made her first real splash in Hollywood thanks to the breakout success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Oscar-winning masterpiece from visionary director Ang Lee. However, she didn’t exactly become a household name, and most of her success in Western productions came from doing voice work (like in Kung Fu Panda 2) and very niche cameos (like her “blink-and-you-miss it” performance in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2).
That all changed with Star Trek: Discovery, a series that (despite being controversial) increased Yeoh’s visibility in a big way. She was no longer limited to smaller, more invisible roles; instead, she was the biggest name on a prestige television show whose every episode cost about $8 million. Being cast in Star Trek raised her profile with Western audiences and filmmakers alike, helping her almost immediately land a role in the Golden Globe-nominated film Crazy Rich Asians, and she soon appeared in multiple Marvel films, including the ambitious Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Taking Home The Gold (And We Don’t Mean Latinum)
All of this culminated with Yeoh starring in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and her performance in this Oscar-sweeping film earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. This instantly transformed Yeoh into one of Hollywood’s most marketable stars: she headlined major TV shows like American Born Chinese and The Brothers Sun before starring in Wicked, the wildly successful adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name.
On paper, Michelle Yeoh’s career should be brighter than ever: she’s proven to be a top earner in prestige TV, ambitious dramas, fluffy genre films, and everything in between. But she returned to the role that made her famous by starring in Section 31, effectively showcasing her loyalty to Paramount for helping put her back on the map. But even this was a kind of compromise: she was originally meant to star in an ongoing Section 31 television show, but after winning an Academy Award, she obviously wanted to move on to bigger and better things.
Now, though, the failure of Section 31 could have a negative impact on this Oscar winner’s career. The sequel Wicked: For Bad was a box office success, but panned by many critics: despite the first movie earning an 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the sequel only earned a 66 percent. That’s a significant reduction, and it puts the movie dangerously close to “rotten” territory (reserved for films under 60 percent).
Two Strikes For This Oscar Winner
When you factor in Section 31, Michelle Yeoh is two for two on high-profile failures. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that she was still relatively obscure, and appearing in a high-profile Star Trek series paved the way for her to get cast in Everything Everywhere All At Once, the film that earned her an Oscar. Now, she returned to Trek in a role that might have everyone from fans to casting directors questioning whether she’s actually as talented as her award would suggest.
That’s a shame, because Yeoh is legitimately one of the most talented performers in Hollywood. She just needs to get better advice from her casting agent about what roles she should and should not accept. The first rule is something that Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti are learning the hard way, thanks to the high-profile failure of Starfleet Academy: avoid Star Trek altogether, at least until Alex Kurtzman (who oversaw Section 31, start to finish) stops trying to destroy the greatest sci-fi franchise ever created.