Wednesday
21Oct2009
Abrams Open to Using Shatner in 'Star Trek' Sequel
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 1:03PM
William Shatner raised a stink when he wasn't in the recent Star Trek reboot, which of course featured Leonard Nimoy as an older version of Spock. Some of it was good-natured, but you could tell The Shat felt slighted by director J.J. Abrams. But Abrams now says the door is wide open for the return of the original James T. Kirk.
"The problem was his character died on screen in one of his Trek films and because we decided, very early on, that we wanted to adhere to Trek canon as best we could...the required machinations to get Shatner into the movie would have been very difficult to do given the story we wanted to tell and also to give him the kind of part that he would be happy with."Adds the director-producer, "It was this thing where it would have felt like a gimmick in order to get Shatner in the movie, which would have honestly, to me, been distracting." But the past, as they say, is prologue. And now that the story can go new directions, Abrams says he's "open to anything." There's more on the topic in Star Trek DVD featurette called The Shatner Conundrum; that DVD is out next month. But Abrams sure sounds like he's not just willing to put The Priceline Negotiator to work but indeed is trying to get him in the sequel: "I feel like the first movie did some of the heavy lifting that needed to be done in order to free us to continue going forward. Maybe there's less of a burden and there's going to be more opportunity to work with him."
Reader Comments (5)
I dont see how you put him in, short of having some of the "Q" continuum be in the movie.
Shatner died in canon, JJ has kept canon in play, going forward he has left the door wide open so long as that does not mean characters from the former timeline.
EVen then you could stretch it with living characters traveling back in time to try and save Spaulk from being stuck in the past ala Back to the Future, but Shatner would still be dead.
but with new time line, Kirk wouldn't have died the way he did anymore.
In the new timeline Kirk is being played bya different Younger actor, who in theory would grow up to look like the old Kirk.
Ok so either they throw Kirk in as fan service with no actualy connection to the old Kirk, or Old Kirk travels back in time from the current timeline. Assuming they want to preserve that young Kirk will grow up to look like the original Kirk.
no to more time travel
used that ghost in the machine once
and noow the are an alternative universe any way
mirror mirrorold kirk
bring him on as the kidsgrandpa and let him talk abouit the good old days when he test piloyted warp ships for efram cockram
Does not matter that kirk died,leave time travel alone!
Simply have Pine take shuttle into cosmic cloud that accelerates his aging process! ta da Shatner comes back on bridge! Great entrance sequence! Just a sub plot so he can cameo quckly whilt bones corrects things! Just a thought!