William Shatner made his last appearance as Captain Kirk 30 years ago. In Star Trek VII – Meeting of the Generations, the hero from Star Trek joined forces with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) from Star Trek: The Next Generation – and died heroically in the process.
A lot has happened since then: Shatner became the oldest man to ever fly into space (for real), had more than nice things to say about modern Star Trek (via SlashFilm), and made it clear that he doesn’t believe in cameo appearances . Still, another adventure as Kirk isn’t entirely out of the question.
Star Trek star William Shatner would return as Captain Kirk
The Canadian recently spoke to Global News about how he could return as James T. Kirk and what conditions would have to be met within and outside of the story.
It’s almost impossible, but it was a great, well-written role, and if there is a reason to be there and it’s not just a cameo appearancebut rather an honest reason for the character to appear, I might consider it.
Paramount
Star Trek VII
Of course, there are many sci-fi options for Kirk’s unlikely return after his death. One of them suggests Shatner directly:
A company that wants to freeze my body and brain for the future might be one way to do it. ‘We froze Captain Kirk’s brain here’, that would be a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring him back, a bit of this, some salt, some pepper. And oh look, here comes Captain Kirk!’
Trek colleague Leonard Nimoy appeared in the Kelvin timeline films before his death. In it he played the original Spock, who gets lost in the alternate reality of the past. These small guest appearances have so far not been attractive for the Kirk actor.
For further reading:
Beyond Captain Kirk: The Many Projects of William Shatner
Even in his old age, Shatner is a busy man. Just last year he was part of the Star Trek documentary You Can Call Me Bill as a narrator, a few years ago he released his Christmas album Shatner Claus and he was most recently heard as Keldor in Masters of the Universe: Revolution. After Star Trek, he also enjoyed great success with the legal series Boston Legal, for which he was awarded both an Emmy and a Golden Globe.