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

Star Trek: William Shatner Open to Luke Skywalker-Like De-Aging Return

Star Trek's William Shatner embraces the idea of a potential on-screen return thanks to technology that would allow him to play a young Kirk.

The prospect of returning to Star Trek has been an intriguing one for star William Shatner, but the Canadian actor has always maintained if that were to happen, it would have to be a meaningful one like his The Original Series co-star Leonard Nimoy did in 2009's Star Trek that saw his Spock travel to the alternate reality Kelvin universe timeline to bring old and new audiences for J. J. Abrams. As the Captain James T. Kirk actor naturally bombarded with the idea with his surviving TOS co-stars Walter Koenig (Chekov) and George Takei (Sulu) make cameos in the new Paramount+ canon, Shatner was asked by Canada's Global News about it again.

William Shatner Tinkers on Ideas of Captain James T. Kirk's Return in Star Trek

"It's an intriguing idea," Shatner said while promoting his biographic documentary You Can Call Me Bill. "It's almost impossible, but it was a great role and so well-written, and if there were a reason to be there, not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it." The actor is currently the spokesperson for Otoy, a company that specializes in technology that "takes years off of your face so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are." Star Wars fans are well aware of bringing back de-aged main characters with Mark Hamill circa 1983's Return of the Jedi appearing in the Disney+ live-action series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Fans saw the Jedi knight clad in his familiar black robes and garb and Hamill sounding a lot younger thanks to ReSpeecher AI technology, which also worked with the 93-year-old James Earl Jones for his recent voiceover roles as Darth Vader.

Shatner last played Kirk in a live-action setting in 1994's Star Trek: Generations, the crossover film with The Next Generation that saw the TOS captain die valiantly in one final adventure. The actor, who's also an accomplished author, found a way to resurrect Kirk in his novel "The Return" in 1996. While that hasn't exactly become a reality at Paramount, Shatner theorized a scenario of how Kirk could be back in the current canon. "A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it," he explained. "'We've got Captain Kirk's brain frozen here.' There's a scenario. 'Let's see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!'"

Currently, two actors are playing the younger Kirk, with Chris Pine playing the Kelvin incarnation if Star Trek IV becomes official and filming is underway, and Paul Wesley playing the pre-TOS Prime era incarnation in Paramount+'s Strange New Worlds. Star Trek: Picard season three showrunner Terry Matalas provided an Easter Egg that could become a reality if offered the opportunity as it's discovered that Starfleet's top secret Daystrom Station harbored the original body of Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and recovered the body of Kirk from his burial site on Veridian III with his vitals showing. As far as finding space for that meaningful story in the immediate future, I don't see the 93-year-old Shatner physically coming back even in CG short of some surprise appearance on the animated Lower Decks.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!