Michelle Yeoh Talks About Returning For Star Trek: Discovery Season Two

In an interview with IGN, Michelle Yeoh spoke about returning for the second season of CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery. Here are highlights:

On a version of the original Captain Georgiou still appearing: “We don’t want anybody else, apart from the selected few who already do know about the Mirror Universe [to know]. That has to be kept under wraps, or otherwise it would be just chaos in the Prime universe. So Admiral Cornwell, Spock, Sarek, Tilly, the few — Saru — that know. So it’s like, when I come onto the Discovery, Captain Pike has no clue. So I play [the] Philippa Georgiou that he’s met before, the kind, compassionate one. But, you know, the problem with the Emperor Georgiou, she cannot help herself from being mischievous. So Captain Pike is almost like … no. She didn’t? I don’t think she was flirting with me… You know? So she loves to play all these little tricks on people’s minds, and she manipulates them, because she’s very smart.”

On the relationship between Georgiou and Michael Burnham: “It’s always going to be complex between the two of them. Michael is going around with so much guilt from Season 1, after the death of her beloved mentor [and] that mother-daughter relationship. And so when she saw the emperor, she can’t help to feel that that’s still the same Philippa Georgiou. And when she found how hard and ruthless she was, I think, in Michael, she wants to bring that humanity back. That’s Michael Burnham, right? And for Philippa Georgiou, she has a soft spot for Michael Burnham. So we’ll see, in the coming season, how that plays out. Who is going to bring who? Am I gonna bring her to the darker side, or is Michael…”

On Section 31: “In the whole universe, this is probably her best toy. Because Section 31 has all the most updated gadgets, because they are the most informed, and she, as an engineer, she can hack into Section 31. And [the Section 31 member who recruited her] Leland thinks he’s in charge of the ship. But she finds out secrets. Because that’s what Section 31 does. It’s collected secrets all over the universe about certain people, and history, and things like that. And so, when you have [those] kind of secrets, it’s power. And for Philippa Georgiou, that’s perfect! So, if she has to be here, she wants to be in Section 31, and she wants to run it, right?”