William Shatner would love to return to Star Trek as Captain Kirk

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The Star Trek franchise is well over fifty years old at this point, and over the course of close to 800 episodes and 13 feature-films, we've seen actors from previous incarnations of the series reprise their roles. The most recent example of this is Patrick Stewart reprising his role of Jean-Luc Picard in CBS All Access' recent Star Trek: Picard, but it seems that another famous Star Trek captain is open to returning as well.

While speaking with Metro UK, Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, was asked if he would return to play his famous role.

If they wrote it and it made reasonable sense then I’d love to [revive Captain Kirk], I wouldn’t do a series. 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.

The last time William Shatner played Captain Kirk was in 1994's STAR TREK: GENERATIONS (in which the character was killed off), but there were rumblings that the actor could have reprised the role in J.J. Abrams STAR TREK reboot, but as it would have been more of a cameo than a real role, it never came to pass. William Shatner also spoke with The Guardian about Star Trek: Picard, which he confesses he hasn't seen. "Patrick Stewart is a great friend of mine, but I haven’t seen Star Trek: Picard," Shatner said. "I haven’t watched any Star Trek. I just don’t like watching myself on television."

Would you like to see William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk once again, or as that (space)ship sailed?

While the Star Trek franchise may be thriving on the small-screen once again, the big-screen side of the franchise hasn't been quite so fortunate. When STAR TREK BEYOND wound up performing below expectations, Paramount wasn't in a big hurry to get the fourth installment of the rebooted series off the ground. S.J. Clarkson (The Defenders) was slated to helm the new entry, but Paramount wound up cancelling the project after negotiations with several of the lead actors broke down. It was revealed last year that Noah Hawley (Fargo) would be writing and directing a new STAR TREK film, but we haven't heard all that much about the project since.