The cancellation was absolutely cruel and sounds worse with every word

Timothy Olyphant is known for his numerous charismatic and edgy roles. Among other things, he played the rough US Marshal Raylan Givens in the neo-western Justified or the desperate husband of a zombie in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet. And he almost became captain of the starship Enterprise in the sci-fi reboot Star Trek.

Star Trek was looking for a new Kirk and Timothy Olyphant was at the forefront

We all know that Chris Pine ended up landing the role of the legendary James T. Kirk. JJ Abrams’ sci-fi remake was a box office success. Pine has directed two other films in the franchise to date, alongside Zachary Quinto’s Spock and Zoe Saldana’s Nyota Uhura. In an alternate timeline, however, Timothy Olyphant could have been the star of the franchise – if only he had been a little younger.

As Variety reports, Timothy Olyphant recently guested on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and shared his gruesome cancellation of Star Trek. At first, Olyphant wasn’t even in the conversation for Kirk. During the casting process, he auditioned for JJ Abrams for the part of Dr. Leonard McCoy before. The role went to Karl Urban, but Abrams had a better offer:

I already have a man for Doc so I don’t need you for that but I don’t have a kirk.

Instead, Olyphant was suddenly being considered for what is arguably the most iconic role in the Star Trek cosmos. In retrospect, however, he does not rate his chances very high:

I think they would even have been willing to hire me. But they wanted someone youngerand [J.J. Abrams] had trouble finding someone younger.

That he was only a stopgap for the reboot cast of Captain Kirk due to his age – he was around 39 at the time – is in itself cruel. But JJ Abrams rubbed salt in the wound with his cancellation: “I found a guy younger who’s really good.“

That guy, of course, was Chris Pine. And he was over 12 years younger than Olyphant. At the time, Pine hadn’t had any significant leading-man experience in Hollywood. Star Trek helped him become world famous.

Watch the trailer for Timothy Olyphant’s latest series appearance here

Thankfully, Timothy Olyphant isn’t bitter. He only has words of praise for his victorious Kirk competitor: “I’ve since met Chris Pine and am a huge fan of his, both on and off screen. i love this guy“

While we haven’t seen Timothy Olyphant in a single Star Trek project to date, he has at least become part of another sci-fi franchise: Most recently, he helmed the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett as Cobb Vanth the camera.

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