J.J. Abrams doubts that William Shatner will ever appear in Star Trek

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Once it was announced that Leonard Nimoy would be joining the cast of J.J. Abrams STAR TREK to reprise his role of Spock, there was the question of whether William Shatner would be joining him as Captain Kirk. The answer to that question ended up being no, but with each new STAR TREK film came renewed rumours that Shatner would be suiting up in his space-suit once again. With another STAR TREK film almost here sans Shatner, J.J. Abrams spoke with The Toronto Sun recently and revealed that he doubts the original Captain Kirk will ever make an appearance in the new franchise.

Obviously it’s Star Trek, nearly anything is possible. There’s the fairly simple notion that on the day Kirk was born another timeline began. But in the other timeline, Kirk died onscreen (in Generations). I don’t know how he would come back unless we went into this other reality and we did a timeline and reality jump. In all the years we’ve been working on this, I've yet to hear a pitch that didn’t sound too contorted and contrived for an audience to swallow. And I’ve talked to him (Shatner) about it. If Kirk had lived there’d be an answer. But there’s something about his having died that makes it impossible.

Leonard Nimoy made an appearance in both STAR TREK and STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, so I can understand why Shatner would be anxiously awaiting his turn, but I'd have to side with Abrams here and agree that shoe-horning a much older Captain Kirk into the franchise would be very hard to pull off. I don't think William Shatner gets enough credit as an actor, just watch any of The Original Series episodes or films and you can see that he's pouring an incredible amount of heart into the role. That said, even if there was a way for Shatner to return, there's a part of me that hopes it doesn't happen. While Nimoy's Spock felt like a natural and organic addition to the Abrams franchise, I have a feeling that seeing William Shatner as Kirk again might pull people out of the story rather than pull them in, but hey, never say never.

STAR TREK BEYOND will hit theaters this Friday.

Would you still like to see Shatner return to Star Trek? If so, give us your best scenario on how that could happen.