William Shatner : Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

We all know the reason why Shatner hasn't appeared in the reboot films...it's because JJ Abrams doesn't like him. I've heard his excuses about how Kirk's death in Generations is a stumbling block. On the contrary, it would be totally easy to fit Shatner's Kirk into the new timeline, regardless of the fact that he died in the original. So easy, in fact, a monkey could develop a plausible plot line. I guess that means Abrams is dumber than a monkey -- no surprise there...

Re: Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

Agree with you there,Ive just been reading the Star Trek novels he co wrote and they are great and would have made awesome movies.He explains how Kirk is brought back to life after the events of Generations.Speaking of which I dunno why he made that movie knowing they were going to kill Captain Kirk off I wouldnt have done it! But theres many ways they could put him in the new movies just a quick cameo for the fans but the best we are gonna get is what they did with Star Trek Beyond and just have a picture of them all together the way we remember them.Its a shame as I always thought the original Star Trek was mainly about Captain Kirk not Spock so why does Leonard Nimoy get to make 2 appearences in the rebooted movies and no William Shatner?Not fair if you ask me and he wont be around forever!

Re: Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

I thought Star Trek Beyond was an ok film. They could have done a lot more to commemorate St 16d0 ar Trek's 50th Anniversary than they did. Considering it was that big of an occasion, I thought the film was somewhat underwhelming.

Had Leonard Nimoy still been alive, I'm sure they would have given him something to do. But, again, since it was Trek's 50th, they could have found room for a scene for the other actors of the original series -- perhaps playing the parents of the new cast. I think that would have been fun and, certainly, a nice moment for the fans to reflect back on the show's origins.

I also thought marking the 50th Anniversary was the perfect opportunity to have Shatner on board, and all the reasons as to why they had trouble, narratively speaking, to bring the character back were, in my mind, just excuses. And lame ones, at that!

Mr. Shatner, if you read this, I know they have screenwriters currently working on a new Trek movie, but I, like a lot of fans out there, would love to see you return as Kirk, and I would welcome the chance to talk to you about how that could happen.

Further, to the filmmakers and producers of Trek, if you're wondering why Beyond performed underwhelmingly at the box office, perhaps you might need look no further than the fact that, for three films now, you have ignored the most valuable commodity Star Trek has -- the original Captain Kirk.

I agree with you, Europa, it's a travesty that all we get of Shatner's Kirk is a photo cameo...

Re: Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

Sigh I agree, I want to see Shatner return so badly as Captain Kirk. He IS Captain Kirk. It still sometimes baffles me they ever rebooted this series and replaced such icon actors/characters.

Now, I actually thought "Beyond" was much better than the first two; I walked out of the theater really blown away actually. I wrote a great review for it on here, I really did enjoy it. It felt like they tried a lot harder to make it more "Star Trek" than the first two films. But I totally agree with the comment above as well; they could have certainly done more, especially with it having been the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.

There is that tough barrier with Shatner's Kirk being dead. It was the passing of the torch to the TNG crew. That being said, I've talked about this before; there was an episode of TNG here they basically said there are hundreds/thousands of different universes (I can't remember the name of the episode). But they showed there being hundreds of Enterprises being next to one another in space. It basically forever crapped on there being any consistency in the Star Trek universe in regards to timeline/story. I think because of that, and because of the alternate timeline in the movies as well, there certainly can be a scenario with old Kirk is NOT dead. Hell, the movies are so lazy at times, they could just bring him back and not even offer an explanation for it, lol.

I think a lot of it is politics; the studio being slightly gunshy of putting him in, as well as Abrams. I don't like JJ Abrams, never did, never will, Star Wars was passable but could have been better. I wish people would quit putting him at the helm of all these huge franchises, because I don't think he's THAT good.

Re: Shatner in the Reboot Star Trek Films

I agree with you about JJ Abrams. I'm not a huge fan either. I know he said the new Star Wars movie was for the fans, and if that was his only goal, then congratulations, JJ, you succeeded. But, really, how much talent does it take to rehash Episode 4 by plagiarizing the plot and throwing in a few new wrinkles. Geez, I could have done that, and they wouldn't have had to spend all that money on Lawrence Kasdan!

As far as Star Trek Beyond, I think it underperformed because they spent very little to market it. The studio didn't build the pre-release hype they did with the previous two. They, along with JJ, should just admit that the notion of having William Shatner in the film would sell itself! Too bad we're not the ones in charge of production at the studio. We'd put together a Star Trek film worthy of the name. Maybe, just like JJ's Star Wars claim about appealing to the fans, Paramount should open a dialogue with the people who know Star Trek the best.
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