William Shatner would “love” to play Captain Kirk again in Star Trek
In 1994, William Shatner played Captain James T. Kirk for the final time in Star Trek Generations. In that movie, Kirk died helping Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) prevent the destruction of a solar system that would have killing untold millions of inhabitants. With his character buried on the side of a mountain, you might think William Shatner’s days portraying Captain Kirk would be over.
And you may be right, but it’s not as sure a thing. Speaking with Metro UK, Shatner laid out what it would take for him to reprise his iconic Star Trek role. “If they wrote it and it made reasonable sense then I’d love to [revive Captain Kirk], I wouldn’t do a series,” he said. “If the role was written properly and it wasn’t a cameo or gratuitous; being there just to show my face, I wouldn’t do that.”
At the moment, the 79-year-old Patrick Stewart is doing a series all about Jean-Luc Picard. That’s got to be a tough job for a man his age, but he’s managing. Still, we don’t blame the 89-year-old Shatner for not wanting to put in that kind of work. It fits with what he said during a Twitter Q&A last year:
No. I think Kirk’s story is pretty well played out at this point. https://t.co/30qVk9uxKN
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 2, 2020
In fact, Shatner admits to not having seen an episode of Picard. “Patrick Stewart is a great friend of mine, but I haven’t seen Star Trek: Picard. I haven’t watched any Star Trek. I just don’t like watching myself on television,” he told The Guardian.
Since Kirk died in Jean-Luc Picard’s timeline, and since Star Trek: Discovery season 3 will take place 900 years in the future, the only show where it makes sense for him to appear would be the upcoming Strange New Worlds. But even there it’d be tricky, because that show is about Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and a young Spock (Ethan Peck) on the USS Enterprise before Kirk became captain, so if they interact with Kirk at all, it’d probably be with a younger version.
Still, this is Star Trek we’re talking about. There are multiple dimensions, wormholes…all kinds of sci-fi stuff the writers could use to dream up an appearance for Kirk if they really wanted to. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Next. WiC Watches: Star Trek: Picard. dark
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