William Shatner would consider playing Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk again, calling the possibility of playing a digitally de-aged Kirk “an intriguing idea.”Shatner last portrayed Kirk in 1994’s Star Trek Generations, which killed off the Captain of the Enterprise. Now age 93, Shatner’s prolific career has continued with more acting roles, writing books, signing on as a spokesman for various companies, going to space with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and his own autobiographical documentary, William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill.
In an interview with Global News Canada to promote You Can Call Me Bill‘s digital on-demand release, William Shatner says he is open to playing Captain Kirk again if Star Trek offered him a substantive role, not just a cameo. Read his quote below:
Mr. Shatner signed on as a spokesman for digital graphics company OTOY, which has created deep-faked renderings of Leonard Nimoy as Spock and other astounding Star Trek visuals for the Roddenberry Archives. Shatner spoke about OTOY’s technology:
As for how Captain Kirk could return – a scenario WIlliam Shatner has written Star Trek novels about – Bill suggests one possible scenario:
Star Trek: Picard season 3 set up a potential scenario for Captain Kirk’s return, revealing that James’ remains are stored in Daystrom Station, Section 31’s black site, under the auspices of ‘Project Phoenix.’ This could open the door for Captain Kirk to be resurrected, perhaps by cloning or with a human-like synthetic android body like the one given to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Theoretically, William Shatner could return as Kirk, digitally de-aged by a few decades.
Willam Shatner previously stated that he would be open to an A.I. recreation of Captain Kirk after he’s dead, as long his his family was financially compensated. However, the 93-year-old legend of stage and screen is musing about actually playing Kirk himself though digital wizardry. But the catch is Mr. Shatner does not want a mere cameo as Kirk, but a role worthy of the Captain that could add to his lore. With new Star Trek movies and TV series in the works, maybe William Shatner returning as Captain Kirk could be an event to mark Star Trek‘s 60th anniversary in 2026.
Source: Global News Canada
Star Trek: The Original Series is streaming on Paramount+