Star Trek's William Shatner Nearly Rejected His Super Bowl 2026 Commercial For A Sad Reason

The Super Bowl is in the rearview mirror, which means another NFL season is in the books. It also means we have a bunch of big commercials to discuss. Many of 2026's best Super Bowl commercials were truly great and memorable. Others? The less said, the better. Somewhere in the middle of the pack was William Shatner's humorous Raisin Bran commercial, loaded with not-so-subtle bathroom jokes and "Will Shat" giving people cereal to increase their fiber intake.

It's a funny ad and a solid use of Shatner's talents. However, the "Star Trek" alum nearly turned it down. Why? Well, the name "Will Shat" actually brought up some not-so-fond memories from his childhood days of being bullied about his last name and its phonetic similarities to a specific word, as the actor explained to Entertainment Weekly:

"I haven't lost those apprehensions. I mean, I used to get into fights when I was a kid in the locker room. They'd kid me about that. I'd say, 'Don't call me that!' and I'd fight them. It was a sore spot as a child. And then adults stopped doing it. But it lurks, and for them to find it was, in itself, a kind of discovery."

The actor has been fairly open about his insecurities over the years. Shatner's height insecurity even forced a change to a "Star Trek" episode back in the day. Ultimately, though, he was able to reckon with his past and come to terms with Kellogg's, bringing the ad to life.

"Kellogg's wanted to do a Super Bowl commercial talking about fiber, which makes you crap really well — you s*** really well with fiber," Shatner mused. "And the problem was: how do you make that amusing? How do you get a laugh on that? And that's what they worked on."

"We worked on refining what was in decent taste, if not good taste, about what is amusing about going to the bathroom," William Shatner explained of the creative process that went into crafting the Raisin Bran ad.

The commercial very clearly plays on the actor's icon status, specifically his work as Captain Kirk on "Star Trek," with that distinctive speaking style that is impossible not to recognize. The ad is very much playing on all of that, but Shatner made it clear that he didn't want to just do a straight-up parody of his time as Kirk:

"I don't like the idea of referring to [Star Trek]. I try and edit it out of anything they write for me to say, as much as possible. But visually, it looks good. And I chose clothing that didn't reflect the [Star Trek] uniform, although they had originally planned that way. So I think it's a reasonable homage to Star Trek without making it Star Trek."

"I tried to be tongue-in-cheek about it all. I hope that there's a subtext of my knowing — that I'm kidding myself," Shatner concluded.

So not only did this ad have to overcome a major insecurity of Shatner's, but they had to work around his desire not to constantly reference his most famous role. He's not ready to close the door on Captain Kirk in an official capacity, though: Shatner has had discussions about returning as Kirk in "Star Trek," though nothing has materialized.

In the end, it all worked out. Kellogg's got their ad, Shatner got paid, and the viewing public got an entertaining commercial. Call it a win-win-win.