A Wіld Stаr Trek Tһeory Solves Wіllіаm Sһаtner's Kіrk Return & Anotһer Frаnсһіse Problem In One Go

Star Trek can resolve two lingering issues in one go by bringing back William Shatner as James T. Kirk, but not as we know him. Plenty of familiar faces have made the voyage home to Star Trek over the past 20 years, from Leonard Nimoy's Spock creating a bridge between the old and new in 2009's Star Trek reboot to the cast of The Next Generation reuniting in Star Trek: Picard season 3.

Conspicuous by his absence has been William Shatner, who is yet to reprise his iconic role as James T. Kirk in any official Star Trek movie or TV show since his character died at the end of 1994's Star Trek Generations. Kirk's death does pose somewhat of a stumbling block to any potential return for Shatner. Fortunately, the wonderful world of Star Trek harbors many mechanisms and methods via which dead characters can resurface, and Shatner himself has teased his long-awaited Star Trek comeback coming sooner rather than later. The real question is how best to make that happen.

William Shatner Could Play The Future Version Of Chris Pine's Kirk In Star Trek 4

Shatner Doesn't Have To Play Prime Kirk

One way William Shatner could slip back into the guise of James T. Kirk for a final time is as the future version of Chris Pine's Kirk from the Kelvin timeline in the upcoming Star Trek 4 movie. Immediately, this route brings several major benefits. Chief among them, Star Trek would avoid having to reconcile Shatner's latest appearance with Kirk's death in Generations. Playing the Kelvin timeline Kirk would completely negate the need for retcons, Nexus shenanigans, paradoxes, or any other sci-fi get-out-of-the-afterlife free card.

The casting would make canonical sense too. The Kelvin timeline altered Star Trek's history, but didn't alter the actual biology of the main characters. Watching Star Trek's three Kelvin timeline movies, audiences are supposed to believe that the younger versions of Kirk and Spock look the same as their counterparts in the Prime timeline used to. When Zachary Quinto stands opposite Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek 2009, the former is intended to represent what Nimoy's youthful Spock looked like prior to The Original Series, and the same goes for Pine and Shatner.

The concept of a 93-year-old Shatner portraying Pine's Kirk in his twilight years checks out logically, then, but it also works from a thematic standpoint. If Star Trek 4 does ever happen, it will almost certainly be the last entry for the Kelvin cast, given how much the project has struggled over the past nine years since Star Trek Beyond. Just as Leonard Nimoy's Spock was there at the genesis of the Kelvin movie series, William Shatner's Kirk can be there at the end, creating a poignant full circle moment.

In terms of how Shatner's older Kirk would factor into the story, time travel would risk feeling too similar to Spock's involvement in Star Trek 2009. Instead, Shatner's scenes could serve as a bookend. Star Trek 4's story could essentially frame itself as the older Kirk recounting a thrilling adventure from his past. The image of Kirk as a storyteller, passing his knowledge and experience onto the next generation, would arguably offer Shatner a more fitting farewell to Star Trek than Generations did.

Shatner's Return Can Reinvigorate Star Trek's Abandoned Kelvin Timeline

If Anyone Can Get Star Trek 4 Going, Kirk Can

As well as resolving the problem of how to bring the original James T. Kirk back in a way that makes sense and means something, Star Trek 4 casting William Shatner would also revive the franchise's frustratingly abandoned Kelvin sandbox. The Kelvin timeline is a pit of unlimited potential that Star Trek has barely tapped into over the past 16 years. Following Star Trek Beyond and the stagnation of a follow-up release, the various Star Trek TV shows have merely referenced J.J. Abrams' alternate timeline in passing, letting a huge sector of the IP go to waste.

Many iterations of Star Trek 4 have come and gone, from a Chris Hemsworth Kirk-athon to the brief flirtation with Quentin Tarantino that was always unlikely to materialize. The sequel's status as a long-term resident of Development Hell cannot be attributed to one factor alone, but bringing William Shatner on board for a James T. Kirk return could be the focal point Star Trek 4 needs to start making progress.

The revolving door of directors suggests that no single story idea for Star Trek 4 has managed to stick during the project's ongoing gestation. Getting Shatner to commit and basing a story around the older Kirk might just be the anchor Star Trek 4, and the Kelvin timeline as a whole, has been crying out for.

The Problem With William Shatner Playing A Different Version Of Kirk

Something Would Feel Off About Shatner Playing A Different Kirk

The big drawback of having William Shatner play an older version of Chris Pine's Kelvin timeline Kirk is that his presence may not carry quite as much emotional weight as it should. The appeal of Shatner appearing in any future Star Trek project - indeed, the main reason for bringing him back in the first place - is reuniting viewers with a character they grew close to over the course of Star Trek: The Original Series and its subsequent movies. Shatner would sound like Kirk, look like Kirk, and act like Kirk, but ultimately wouldn't be the character we know and love.