A few days ago we heard a rumour suggesting that William Shatner is wanted for a cameo as James T. Kirk in the upcoming third instalment of Paramount’s rebooted Star Trek franchise, and while Shatner subsequently took to Twitter to deny the speculation, he has now admitted that he has been approached by producer J.J. Abrams with a view to returning in his signature role in what will be the 50th anniversary of the sci-fi series. Speaking at Mashville Wizard World Comic-Con yesterday, Shatner admitted that he’d had a phonecall from Abrams to sound out his interest in a cameo in Star Trek 3:
“So [Abrams] calls and says ‘I’m calling, Bill, because the director of the Star Trek movie, the next one, has had an idea where you might be involved in it. So I am calling to see if you would be interested.’ I said ‘Oh, yeah. If it is meaningful.’ When Leonard was Spock in that first movie, I said to Leonard ‘you know when you go back in time you are still old.’ So it depends on what you do with the character. I said ‘I would be delighted.’ And he said ‘you can’t say anything.’ And I said ‘I wont even tell my wife. I wont tell anyone. I wouldn’t do that, JJ.’ So I get back from Australia and it is all over the Internet, that the director held an interview and said they wanted Shatner and Nimoy to be in the next movie. I bet JJ is frothing at the mouth. So the news is out that they have an idea that they want Leonard and myself. They might want Leonard and myself . I don’t know what to do with it. How do you get me fifty years later into the movie… I know it’s science fiction, but even I couldn’t come up with an idea.”
You can watch a video of Shatner talking about Star Trek at Wizard World here:
Star Trek 3 is set for release in 2016, marking the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Roberto Orci is set to handle directing duties, with Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (Bones), John Cho (Sulu) and Anton Yelchin (Checkov).
Originally published September 28, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
