UPDATE: Nicholas Meyer, the man who made the best Star Trek film ever, has walked through exactly how he saved the franchise with The Wrath of Khan — the same Khan-era template the new Paramount regime is chasing as it eyes an older Kirk.
William Shatner just gave the answer fans have waited 32 years to hear.
In a new interview for TV Guide Magazine’s Star Trek: The Captains special issue celebrating the franchise’s 60th anniversary, the 95-year-old actor made it clear he is open to playing Captain James T. Kirk again.
And the timing could not be better, because as I exclusively reported this week, the incoming Paramount-WBD regime is taking Star Trek back to its Wrath of Khan and Next Generation roots. That is Shatner’s era.
What Shatner Said About Returning As Kirk
Asked by TV Insider what it would take to get him back in the captain’s chair, Shatner joked, “It’s easy to say money,” before getting serious about the character.
Shatner explained that the longer he played Kirk, the more shades of character he was allowed to bring to the role, and he argued that an older Kirk would actually suit him. He said he still has the aggression and instinct for battle, but that age brings a smoothing of those peaks.
“Even at 95, I think Captain Kirk would be a really good captain,” Shatner said, describing the Enterprise as a ship capable of both war and peace.
That is about as clear a yes as you will ever get from Shatner, who has spent the last three decades fielding this question since Kirk was unceremoniously killed off in 1994’s Star Trek Generations.
The Old Regime Tried And Failed To Bring Kirk Back
Here is what makes Shatner’s comments sting for the outgoing era: the Alex Kurtzman regime wanted this and could not close the deal.
Kurtzman and Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman admitted to Polygon that the show developed scripts and tried to bring Shatner back every season, including a pitch built around “The City on the Edge of Forever.” It never happened.
Now Strange New Worlds has wrapped production, Starfleet Academy is canceled with its sets torn down, and Kurtzman’s decade running the franchise ends with the biggest name in Star Trek history never once appearing on screen.
Shatner has always said the same thing: if Kirk comes back, it has to mean something. The streaming era never gave him a reason.
The fans didn’t leave Star Trek; Hollywood stopped making the Star Trek they signed up for, and Shatner clearly feels the same about how his character has been handled.
The Ellison Era Is Built For Exactly This
Now connect the dots.
My Hollywood insiders tell me David Ellison and Mike De Luca are teaming to revitalize Star Trek once the Paramount-WBD merger closes this month.
The specifics, per my sources: “They’re taking Star Trek back to what made Wrath of Khan to Next Generation work,” part of Ellison’s larger philosophy of returning the merged studio to earnest, event-scale treatment of properties at the height of their cultural power.
Wrath of Khan to Next Generation is literally the Shatner window. That 1982 to 1994 golden run begins with Kirk facing Khan and ends with Kirk’s death in Generations.
If the new regime’s blueprint is sincerity, spectacle, and respect for the franchise’s peak, there is no bigger statement available than putting William Shatner back in the chair one more time and doing it right.
Worth remembering: Star Trek: Picard already planted the seed, revealing Starfleet has Kirk’s body preserved for something called “Project Phoenix.” The door is open in canon.
Paramount’s new Star Trek movie is speculated to get its first details at San Diego Comic-Con this month, and the franchise’s 60th anniversary lands September 8. If the new regime wants to announce itself, the moment is right there. It also lines up with Paramount buying Warner Bros. Discovery.
Shatner rocketed into actual space at 90. Betting against him suiting up at 95 seems unwise.
