How Each Star Trek Captain Got Cast
9. You Don't Say No To Michelle Yeoh
Discovery is unique among the Star Trek series to that point as being the first iteration of Trek to be led by two women of colour. Though Captain Georgiou was rather unceremoniously killed off in the pilot, Michelle Yeoh had by no means vanished, returning as the evil Emperor Georgiou later in the season.
Yeoh's career was highly impressive, being not only a star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies, but also a former ballerina (a career brought up short by a back injury). She does her own stunts on Discovery, something that has added to the fun of the character.
Finding Yeoh was something of a cross between fate and a stroke of luck on all sides. One of the key ingrediants to her casting was her ability to bounce so effortlessly off Sonequa Martin-Greene. Yeoh recalled the early days of shooting in Jordan, which was standing in for the planet that Burnham and Georgiou are on in the opening scenes. The two actors bonded over roughing it in the sand, quickly developing a mother/daughter relationship.
Yeoh is set to lead her own spin-off series, revolving around Georgiou's career with Section 31. As her character has been thrown into the far future with the rest of Discovery, it is as yet unclear how the series will cover this. But, any extra time with Yeoh is time well spent!