Abrams Unsure If Shatner Will Be In New Star Trek Films
Though the new Star Trek films are technically in a new alternate universe, dubbed the Kelvin timeline via the events of the first film, there has been crossovers of a sort from the original cast and even storylines from the original saga of films. Leonard Nimoy famous cameoed as Spock and actually helped kickstart the new timeline. This has left many to wonder if William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek series and films, would appear at some point in some way.
J.J. Abrams spoke to the Toronto Sun about this:
“Obviously it’s Star Trek, nearly anything is possible,” said Abrams. “There’s the fairly simple notion that on the day Kirk was born another timeline began. But in the other timeline, Kirk died onscreen (in Generations). I don’t know how he would come back unless we went into this other reality and we did a timeline and reality jump.”
He goes on,
“In all the years we’ve been working on this, I’ve yet to hear a pitch that didn’t sound too contorted and contrived for an audience to swallow. And I’ve talked to him (Shatner) about it. If Kirk had lived there’d be an answer. But there’s something about his having died that makes it impossible.”
The next Star Trek Film, Star Trek Beyond, arrives in theaters July 22nd.