Star Trek: Picard’s Jack Crusher Actor “Pissed Off” About His Strange New Worlds Kirk Audition

Ed Speleers wowed audiences as Jack Crusher in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but the British actor also auditioned for the role of Lt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and he was "pissed off" he didn't get it. Paul Wesley from The Vampire Diaries was tapped to play Strange New Worlds' young Kirk. Meanwhile, Speleers was Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas' first and only choice for the role of Jack Crusher, the son of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), and Speleers was crucial to the success of Star Trek: Picard season 3.

Star Trek: Picard season 3's Ed Speleers and showrunner Terry Matalas joined The D-Con Chamber podcast as special guests, and they discussed how Speleers was cast as Jack Crusher with hosts Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer. Speleers revealed that before his Picard audition, he sent in a self-tape to Star Trek: Strange New Worldsthat Ed believes was for the role of James T. Kirk, but Speleers "didn't hear anything back." Read his quote and watch The D-Con Chamber video below, with his clip at around the 4:30 mark:

I think about two weeks before I taped for Picard, there was another Star Trek tape that came in. I think the role must have been, looking at it now, the young Kirk character in Strange New Worlds… I really thought I did quite a good tape, and I was really pissed off when I didn’t actually [get it]... I didn’t hear anything back, and I was like, “How did this…? I thought that was half-decent, I felt… Not even a whisper, nothing. Nothing. Nada.

Would Ed Speleers Have Made A Good Kirk In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

Star Trek got the right Jack Crusher and Lt. James T. Kirk

Ed Speleers is a remarkable talent, and he surely would have made a fine Lt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Interestingly, Speleers perhaps more closely resembles a young William Shatner than Paul Wesley does, and he would have easily been able to ditch his English accent to play Kirk as an American. However, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' executive producers liked Paul Wesley and cast him as young Kirk. Wesley embodies Kirk's boyish charm and recklessness, but also James' book smarts.

Paul Wesley's Kirk is also a terrific romantic foil for Christina Chong's Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, although Ed Speleers is no stranger to playing a romantic lead as well. Jack Crusher's potential love connection with Lt. Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) is certainly a popular fan 'ship' from Star Trek: Picard season 3. Ultimately, Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds got the right Jack Crusher and James T. Kirk for their respective shows, but Ed Speleers as Kirk is still an intriguing casting 'what if?'