Back in 2014, before Star Trek Beyond even had an official title, rumors were flying that William Shatner would be making a cameo appearance in the movie, which seemed plausible. I mean, they have to squeeze in some actual Star Trek stuff in-between the Beastie Boys and Michael Bay action scenes, right? Apparently not.
William Shatner is now saying there was “never a conversation” between himself and the makers of Star Trek Beyond. According to Shatner, it just never came up:
“It would have been interesting to see what their fertile imaginations could have done with somebody who is 20 years older than when Captain Kirk died and how they would have explained the difference in appearance. But that never came up. I’m sure they must have thought of it one time or another, but I never had a substantial conversation about replaying the role.”
Of course, this directly contradicts other statements Shatner has made. As we previously reported, Shatner once claimed he was contacted by J.J. Abrams about being in the next Star Trek:
“So [J.J. 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. I would be delighted.'”
Hmmm! Of course, Star Trek Beyond did go through a complete behind-the-scenes shake-up, in which Simon Pegg and Justin Lin replaced previous writer-director Roberto Orci. Maybe Shatner meant to specify that the new creative team hasn’t contacted him? Either way, it sounds like we won’t be seeing William Shatner chasing Zoe Saldana’s Uhura or out-hamming Chris Pine. Just one more strike against Star Trek Beyond.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)