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Justified: Timothy Olyphant on Losing Star Trek/Kirk to Chris Pine

Justified star Timothy Olyphant shared how close he came to playing Kirk for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek before losing the role to Chris Pine.

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We think it goes without saying that the television landscape would be a little less special without Timothy Olyphant's U.S, Marshal Raylan Givens in it. And with FX's Justified: City Primeval, viewers are getting a reminder of the show's greatness. But what if Olyphant ended up working his magic not with Raylan Givens but with… James T. Kirk?! Checking in with Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, Olyphant revealed that he was being considered for the role of the U.S.S. Enterprise's captain in J.J. Abrams' take on the franchise – a role that would go to Chris Pine.

justified
Image: FX Networks/Paramount

"Here's what I can tell you about 'Star Trek': I went in and auditioned not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with J.J. Abrams, and he's just a lovely, lovely guy. And just a lovely, lovely audition process. Somewhere in there, I was auditioning for Doc, he's like, 'I already got a guy for Doc [Karl Urban], so I don't need you for that, but I don't have a Kirk,' Olyphant shared. But as much as getting Abrams' suggestion to audition must've felt like a good sign, there was someone else who may have had a natural advantage on Olyphant. "I believe it was one of those things where it's like they might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and [Abrams] was having a hard time finding somebody younger. And somewhere along the line, J.J. called and said, 'I found a guy, younger, who's really good,'" Olyphant added.

And that's just a small sample of what you can expect from Olyphant on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Along with Justified and "Star Trek," Olyphant & Horowitz cover Go, Quentin Tarantino & Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Scream 2, and a whole lot of other topics – personal and professional. Here's a look at the complete episode (with the "Star Trek" talk kicking in at around the 38:30 mark):

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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