Summary
- William Shatner is open to playing Captain Kirk again, not just a cameo, for genuine role in Star Trek if offered.
- OTOY deep-faked Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and can make actors look decades younger with technology.
- Shatner suggests a storyline where Captain Kirk's brain is frozen for a future return in Star Trek.
William Shatner would consider playing Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk again, calling the possibility of playing a digitally de-aged Kirk "an intriguing idea." Shatner last portrayed Kirk in 1994's Star Trek Generations, which killed off the Captain of the Enterprise. Now age 93, Shatner's prolific career has continued with more acting roles, writing books, signing on as a spokesman for various companies, going to space with Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and his own autobiographical documentary, William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill.
In an interview with Global News Canada to promote You Can Call Me Bill's digital on-demand release, William Shatner says he is open to playing Captain Kirk again if Star Trek offered him a substantive role, not just a cameo. Read his quote below:
“It's an intriguing idea... It’s almost impossible, but it was a great role and so well-written, and if there were a reason to be there, not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it.”
Mr. Shatner signed on as a spokesman for digital graphics company OTOY, which has created deep-faked renderings of Leonard Nimoy as Spock and other astounding Star Trek visuals for the Roddenberry Archives. Shatner spoke about OTOY's technology:
“[Otoy] takes years off of your face, so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are.”
As for how Captain Kirk could return - a scenario WIlliam Shatner has written Star Trek novels about - Bill suggests one possible scenario:
“A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it... We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”
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Source: Global News Canada
Star Trek: The Original Series is streaming on Paramount+
- Cast
- William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , Deforest Kelley , Nichelle Nichols , James Doohan , George Takei , Walter Koenig
- Seasons
- 3
- Network
- NBC
- Streaming Service(s)
- Paramount+
- Franchise(s)
- Star Trek
- Writers
- Gene Roddenberry
- Showrunner
- Gene Roddenberry
- Where To Watch
- Paramount+
