William Shatner Calls Return To Star Trek “Intriguing Idea,” Suggests Digital De-Aging To Play Kirk Again – TrekMovie.com

The star of the original Star Trek series (and several Star Trek movies) turned 93 in March, and William Shatner still sees the possibility of returning to the role of James T. Kirk.

Kirk still intrigues Shatner

William Shatner is promoting his new documentary You Can Call Me Bill, which has recently been released on Video on Demand. While out promoting, of course he’s been asked questions about Trek, including one he has been getting for decades: Would you play Kirk again? In a new interview with Canadian Press, Shatner said:

“It’s an intriguing idea… 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.”

William Shatner as Kirk in Star Trek Generations

Shatner last played Kirk 30 years ago in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations, which featured the death of Kirk. The actor has an idea of for way to bring him back as Kirk. From the Canadian Press interview:

He suggests he could play a younger version of the Starship Enterprise captain as he’s recently signed on to be the spokesperson for OTOY, a company specializing 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.”

Earlier this year Shatner said he was open to the idea of an AI-generated performance of him as a younger Kirk, but only after he had passed away (and after his family was paid, naturally). But in this case, Shatner is suggesting using technology for his own performance. De-aging has become more common in films today. Perhaps the most extensive use of this was for last year’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which shaved around four decades off of Harrison Ford. Star Trek has used digital de-aging before, most extensively in Star Trek: Picard which used it to de-age Brent Spiner as Data, as well as Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jonathan Frakes as Riker.

De-aged Patrick Stewart as Picard and Jonathan Frakes as Riker in “Seventeen Seconds”

Going to the expense of bringing back William Shatner as James T. Kirk and digitally de-aging him would require a specific reason. The franchise has already recast the role twice with younger actors, Chris Pine for the last three feature films and Paul Wesley on the Strange New Worlds television series.

Of course, it’s always hard to tell how serious Shatner is with these comments. In the same interview, he joked about how Kirk could be brought back after his body and brain were frozen:

“‘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!’”

You can hear much more from Shatner, including his regrets about Kirk’s death scene in Generations, in the new documentary You Can Call Me Bill.

Keep with all the Trek celebrity news at TrekMovie.