Posted in: Movies, Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, william shatner

Star Trek: William Shatner on Writer Pitching Possible Kirk Return

William Shatner revealed he's been approached by a writer for an untitled Star Trek project at Paramount that would see him return as Kirk.

It sounds like a broken record for over 30 years, but there are those from within the Star Trek community who have been interested in seeing William Shatner's return in some form to the franchise since his valiant sacrifice in 1994's Generations that saw him save the galaxy one last time, but alongside Patrick Stewart's Jean Luc Picard. While Stewart was able to have a hand in rewriting his ending with the third and final season of Picard gathered around his U.S.S. Enterprise-D crewmates for a final round of poker a la The Next Generation finale "All Good Things…," The Original Series fans were left to wonder if it was truly it for Shatner's Kirk given what most of his surviving castmates were able to do since the David Carson film.

William Shatner Reveals He's Been Approached About a Possible Star Trek Return for Paramount

At Fan Expo Vancouver, the 93-year-old Canadian legend revealed at a panel that a writer from Paramount working on an unnamed Star Trek series had approached him about the opportunity. "I have been asked to come back as Kirk so many times. If Kirk is going to come back, it has to mean something," Shatner said (via The Direct). "It has to be the show. But I was so impressed by this writer, so I said let's talk after I'm done in Vancouver. So I'm awaiting a pitch to make it the show, it should come on Monday or Tuesday."

The first attempt at a Kirk return was the appropriately titled Star Trek: The Return, a novel written by Shatner, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Judith Reeves-Stevens in 1996 that involved a plot between the Romulans and the Borg, which also brought back the TNG crew as well. Coincidentally enough, Abrams would use the Romulans' work with Borg technology with Nero's (Eric Bana) ship, the Narada, in his 2009 Star Trek soft reboot. Romulans would also factor in Picard season one working with Ex-Borg on a salvaged Borg cube.

The Abrams film would also be the first major live-action opportunity as he created the Kelvin Universe timeline not to undermine the prime canon and to provide a fresh take on a younger TOS crew. Led by Chris Pine in the Kirk role, the holdover who would pass the torch was Leonard Nimoy, who reprised his role as Spock, named "Spock Prime" for the film to differentiate. There was a scene pitched where Spock Prime opened a digital message from Kirk wishing him a "Happy Birthday," but Shatner scoffed at the idea of a cameo. Meanwhile, in the Paramount+ era, Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov in TOS, had a vocal cameo in the Picard series finale, playing his character's grandson Anton Chekov, named after the late Anton Yelchin, who played his character in the Kelvin films. George Takei reprised his role as Sulu in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

With Nimoy's passing in 2015, the chance for their Kirk and Spock together again passed, but thanks to Sam Witwer, Lawrence Selleck, and CG technology, fans got to see the two share a memorable speechless final moment in the Roddenberry Archive and OTOY short Unification from writer-director Carlos Baena, who also brought back fan favorites like Gary Lockwood and Robin Curtis to reprise their TOS-era roles of Gary Mitchell and Saavick. Baena also utilized the narrative from Picard showrunner Terry Matalas with Kirk's biomonitor at the Daystrom Station seen in season three and the character of Yor (Gordon Parpley), introduced in Discovery, who wore 23rd century-era uniform but appeared in the 32nd century.

As far as this untitled Star Trek project from Paramount could be, Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome and Justin Simien are developing a half-hour live-action workplace comedy. It could show some promise if it's anything like the Mike McMahan series, but not something I can see happening. The reason being, during the time of Takei's cameo, when Boimler (Jack Quaid) found his way to Kirk's farm and the former ensign found Sulu instead, Boimler reacted, "Even better" as a nod to Takei and Shatner's feud. The use of hologram tech in the 32nd century also lends to the possibility with Starfleet Academy.

The most plausible scenario that makes sense to me is the Kelvin universe's fourth untitled Star Trek film, which is slated to be the last. Time travel is a popular theme in the franchise, and with Nimoy's Prime meeting Zachary Quinto's Kelvin counterpart, it would be appropriate if Shatner's Kelvin future Kirk met with his younger counterpart to help see him on his final journey. It would not only put Shatner in the Star Trek spotlight one final time, the way it did for Nimoy, but it offers the proper closure that doesn't necessarily need to see Kirk die again; it wouldn't ruin the existing canon of having to resurrect his prime counterpart. It would also give him the kind of father-son type of narrative Shatner never got with the late Merritt Butrick, who played his son David in two of the Trek films – The Wrath of Khan (1982) and The Search for Spock (1984). Aside from the lack of much quality screen time, the only other mention of the relationship was in TOS's final feature in 1991's The Undiscovered Country.

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