The idea of William Shatner returning to the role of James T. Kirk has been a hot topic since his version of the character was killed off in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations. There have been a variety of attempts to bring him back, but none have panned out. Even as he has moved into his 90s, the actor has made it clear that if the stars were to align, he is ready to return to the final frontier—and just this weekend, he indicated that there has been some discussion of just that.
Shatner expecting a new pitch
William Shatner is in Vancouver, BC, this weekend as a headlining guest of Fan Expo Vancouver. The Direct staff member Jennifer McDonough reported from his panel that the 93- year-old actor “had been contacted by a writer on one of Paramount’s currently-in-development Star Trek series.” Shatner is quoted as saying:
“I have been asked to come back as Kirk so many times. If Kirk is going to come back, it has to mean something. It has to be the show. But I was so impressed by this writer, so I said let’s talk after I’m done in Vancouver. So I’m awaiting a pitch to make it the show, it should come on Monday or Tuesday.”
What show could fit?
The key word in the report is “series,” so if that is accurate we are talking Star Trek TV on Paramount+ and not one of the various feature projects in development at Paramount Pictures. As of now, Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy are the only active series. A fourth season of Strange New Worlds is set to go into production within weeks and the second season of Starfleet Academy should go into production around mid-2025. The only show we know of that’s in the early stages of development (and has not been greenlit yet) is Justin Simien and Tawny Newsome’s Trek comedy show which takes place in the early 25th century, an era last seen in Picard season 3. But there could be other shows being developed that are still under wraps.
Set in the 23rd century before the original Star Trek, Strange New Worlds already has a Kirk in Paul Wesley, but the show also shown it’s willing to do all sorts of fun timey-wimey things, so maybe young Kirk meets an old Kirk in SNW season 4?
Starfleet Academy is set in the far future, as seen in Discovery, in the 32nd century, and could avoid the time travel scenario altogether. An older and wiser Kirk could be a holographic training/teaching simulation, or even a de-aged Shatner to look more like say Kirk of the movie era could be on the table.
There’s also the tantalizing tease from Picard season 3 of Kirk’s remains being kept at Daystrom Station, where the displ ay text had the name “Project Phoenix“—which of course certainly implies that a resurrected Kirk/clone of Kirk may be in the works by Section 31 in the early 25th century. This might lend support to the idea that the show he’s referring to is the Newsome and Simien comedy show, since it’s the right era for Project Phoenix—but all of this is just speculation at the moment.
Shatner has been approached before
Shatner has been approached before. It was rumored that Roberto Orci had a role for him is his unproduced third Kelvin timeline film. A scene was written for him (but never officially pitched) in Star Trek 2009, which you can read more about here. There were also discussions to bring Shatner back for Star Trek: Enterprise.
Shatner has been softening on the idea of returning to play Kirk even without being specifically approached, as he told USA Today back in 2021. We’ve also seen him pontificate on the idea of returning in a de-aged form, first mentinoing the idea back in 2018. And he recently gave his approval to use his likeness at various ages as Kirk for the Roddenberry Archive’s moving short film Unification.
