Shohreh Aghdashloo Joins STAR TREK BEYOND

March 11, 2016

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Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo is joining the ranks of a select few Star Trek actors as she takes on a commanding role in this year’s STAR TREK BEYOND, which is now prepping for some late-production reshoots.

As reported by Deadline today, the award-winning actress will be portraying the “High Command of the Federation” in the upcoming film – which we’re taking to mean either the C in C of Starfleet or the Federation President – both roles which have only been filled by men in earlier Trek adventures.

Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country featured the first explicit Commander in Chief of Starfleet, played by Leon Russom, and of course there have been several actors to portray the president of the Federation, from Kurtwood Smith as the Efrosian president Ra-ghoratreii to the 24th century’s Jaresh-Inyo (Hershel Sparber).

Aghdashloo is currently staring in SyFy’s futuristic The Expanse as a high-ranking member of the Earth United Nations, and has been a frequent guest actor in television shows from FOX’s 24 to NBC’s Grimm.

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Feature film reshoots are certainly not an uncommon practice, and are often part of the planned production cycle for movie filming, often used to accommodate additional scripted sequences, replace previously-filmed material, and accommodate scheduling issues affecting earlier parts of the picture timeline.

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War completed principal photography in late 2015, for example, but completed a round of reshoots for the film in late January. As that report on Latino Review succinctly puts it:

To be clear, to categorize these parts of production as “reshoots” is a bit of a misnomer. More often than not, these are just bits of additional filming that the director(s) felt were necessary after spending a bunch of time in the editing room. Sometimes they need something as simple as an additional camera angle.

Sometimes they need to add a little bit of dialogue to make sure something is clear. Or, as was the case in THE AVENGERS, they may be adding one more sequence to slap on as a coda.

This is far from the first time that a Trek film has shot new material after the end of principal photography.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=b_cNRAT7a2I

Spock’s casket, soft-landed on the Genesis Planet, was not included until after a poorly-received test screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.