Star Trek co-writer Roberto Orci is now saying that William Shatner might appear in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek prequel/reboot after all.
“Still, it could happen,” Orci admitted after explaining to SciFi that the problem is two fold: “One, from our point of view, we are still hoping to find a way. Secondly, one of the difficulties that was brought up and discussed with Shatner when we all met him and pitched him ideas is that Trek fans are sticklers for their canon. [And,] unfortunately, Shatner’s Captain Kirk was killed in Star Trek VII [1994's Generations].”
But Shatner will never be written into the script if the writers strike continues.
“From my point of view, it’s a very long shoot, and things change. It’s just whether we can figure it out.”
Call my cynical, but I continue to believe that a Shatner cameo has already written. Orci, Kurtzman, Abrams and Shatner have agreed to deny deny deny to keep the surprise, and many of Paramount brass have also been kept out of the loop. Could I be totally off base? Well, yeah…
December 18th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Cool. The ghost of Captain Kirk in Star Trek 90210 :)
The Shat can come back. Any Trek fan knows time-travel opens up all sorts of possibilities. Canon be damned.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Please, Please, Please do not put this guy in the movie! It’s over with, move on to a new take on the series. It’s bad enough what Harve Bennett ,et al, did by turning characters into caricatures. Personally, I have a problem even with Nimoy or anyone from the original cast being in it, let alone the rumored time travel thing. But now that a real director is involved, actual characters have an actual chance of erupting out of something.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:28 am
it would be interesting if shatner played kirk’s father. if they didn’t get along would add an interesting wrinkle to kirk’s character. after all there is absolutely no background on kirk’s family (as far as i know, and i’m no trek expert).
December 18th, 2007 at 11:45 am
we don’t need shatner.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Yes we do. Shatner IS Star Trek.
December 18th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Shatner could play Kirk’s father OR grandfather. Or at least they should use his voice in the new movie as a fond gesture to the original show.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Yeesh, stickler for canon my butt. Kirk’s been in the nexus (as has Picard) and as it was explained in the movie itself, some part of them will always be there (just like Guinan). Ergo Kirk is not actually dead nor can he ever be…
Stupid movie that it was, the loophole is obvious don’t ya think?