Star Trek: The Original Series premiered way back in 1966, and even all these later, a 93-year-old William Shatner is still known to the public mainly as Captain Kirk. It's a role he embraced the other weekend when he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd Annual Saturn Awards. “Nobody knew that 60 years later, you and I would be talking about it. This show is just phenomenal,” he told US Weekly. “It’ll be really in our lifetime, impossible to repeat, because it would take some entertainment to exist for 60 years from now to equal what Star Trek has done. We won’t be alive then.”
It is indeed very impressive that, decades later, not only would people still know about Star Trek, but that the franchise would be this prolific. Recent years have seen an explosion in new Star Trek shows, from Discovery to Picard to Lower Decks to Strange New Worlds and beyond. “It’s phenomenal,” Shatner said of the revival. “It’s like [a] good seed being planted all over.”
Shatner doesn't see any reason the revival can't continue. “Once some writers get a hold of it, they can invent all kinds of wondrous things," he said. In fact, speaking to Collider, he's not ruling out his version of Captain Kirk appearing in future shows or movies...and he wouldn't have to lift a finger:
"Well, the science of special effects is progressing to such a degree and I want to be part of it. So, although I don't want to do it again, being part of this advanced technology is wondrous."
It's true that special effects have advanced to the point where studios can insert an actor into a show or movie without that actor ever actually being there. For instance, "Mark Hamill" played Luke Skywalker in the Disney+ show The Book of Boba Fett...only it wasn't Mark Hamill at all. Performance artist Scott Lang stood in for Mark Hamill and then his face and voice were digitally altered to look like Mark Hamill's version of Luke:
Could something like that be done for William Shatner and Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise? I'm kind of surprised it already hasn't.
While Paramount figures out something to do with that idea, more Star Trek shows and movies continue to come out. The most recent movie, Section 31, was a bit of a flop, but Paramount has more ammo in the chamber, with the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds coming out later this year.
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