Scottish actor James McAvoy is one of those avowed Star Trek fans who has expressed keen interest interest in appearing in the franchise, which is why it’s surprising to hear him talk about why he turned down a role in one of the Kelvin Universe feature films produced by J.J. Abrams.
Why McAvoy said no to J.J.
McAvoy was a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast when host Josh Horowitz brought up their shared love of Star Trek, and after talking a bit about their favorite shows and movies, McAvoy was asked how was it he never made it into final frontier. The BAFTA-winning actor then revealed he “came close” to landing a role in one of the recent Star Trek movies. McAvoy didn’t want to get specific about which role he was offered, but talked about how he tried to make it work:
“I got offered something. I didn’t want to do that. I suggested I can do something else. They wanted to camera test me and I was like, ‘Do you know what, it’s alright, don’t worry about it.’ Not because I wouldn’t, because I just didn’t think I was right.”
McAvoy went on to say that he thought Abrams eventually cast the right actor for the role:
“What I said to J.J. about what I thought the role should be and the kind of actor that should be, they absolutely got. I’m not saying that he got that because I said that. But the kind of person I thought that I’m not is exactly the person who got it. And it’s brilliant. And I love the new ones. I love J.J.’s films. They are excellent.”
It’s not clear what role McAvoy was offered (and requested), or even which of the three Abrams-produced films he’s referring to. Rumors that McAvoy was approached to play Scotty for Abrams’ first Star Trek movie start rumbling back in early 2007, several months before Simon Pegg was cast in the role. After initial denials, McAvoy became more evasive about whether he was in the running for the role of the USS Enterprise’s engineer. It’s unlikely he would have turned down such an iconic role as Scotty, so he was probably offered some other character.
McAvoy’s Trek dream
Even though he “came close” to that one role, over recent years McAvoy has made it clear he very much wants to get into Star Trek. When Star Trek: Picard was in development, he volunteered his services on more than one occasion to play a young Jean-Luc Picard, noting he was uniquely qualified as he had played a young Charles Xavier (originally played by Patrick Stewart) in 3 X-Men movies. He is such a big Trek fan that he used his time during the pandemic to create his own Trek fan film called “Star Force: Sci-Fisolation.”
More recently, McAvoy noted that as he gets into his mid-40s, he may be aging out of playing a young Picard but still hopes for a Trek role. There are currently two active Star Trek feature film projects at Paramount Pictures (the “origin story” and “Star Trek 4”), so maybe he will still have his chance. And of course, there could always be a role in the new Starfleet Academy show, which cast Trek fan Paul Giamatti, or maybe even the fourth season of Strange New Worlds. There are always… possibilities.
