William Shatner Denies Being Offered Star Trek Reboot Cameo

During a Q&A at a Las VegasStar Trekconvention , original Captain Kirk William Shatner addressed a long - standing rumor that he was supposed to appear in J.J. Abrams ' 2009Star Trekreboot before plan to insert him into the film were dispute . As Shatner told it , he was never made aware of any plans to include him in the motion-picture show and was surely never volunteer a cameo show .

Abrams ' 2009Star Trekrebooted the iconic franchise by introducing a whole fresh cast in the roles of James Kirk , Spock , McCoy , Uhura , Scotty and others , mold a bridgework to the original TV and moving picture serial by casting Leonard Nimoy as atime - travelingolder edition of Zachary Quinto ’s Spock . Some figure the inclusion of Old Spock as a nice chapeau - tip to the original cast , while others dismissed the move as dizzy fan Robert William Service that damp the movie ’s already fragile secret plan .

Rumors have circulated for eld that Abrams also wrote a scene for Shatner ’s Old Captain Kirk , but Shatner himself has now revealed that he never hear about the scene outdoors of the rumour and was never proffer a cameo in the movie ( viaTrek Movie ) . Shatner was asked by a devotee about the scene during a Q&A at Star Trek Las Vegas and a funny exchange ensued that began with Shatner lamenting the fact that he was not asked to look in Abrams’Star Trek . Shatner then query the fan as to where he hear about the aver Old Kirk scene and the sports fan cited a " reliable source " to which Shatner replied :

dependable source ? That ’s faux news! … But seriously I have see that story , but it has never been in my consciousness . I am not aware of that at all .

The supposed view would have had Old Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) showing the younger avatar of himself a recording of Shatner ’s Old Kirk . After hear a brief breakdown of the vista from the fan , Shatner gave his brutal assessment of Abrams ' design :

That is the stupidest scene I have ever heard of ! When I hear Leonard [ Nimoy ] in the first motion-picture show that J.J. [ Abrams ] made and he went back in time , I say to Leonard “ You recognize you are old when you go back in time and you are still honest-to-god ! ” … Those are gratuitous scenes ! I want to play something – well the question is “ How do you put this 50 - year - older maitre d’hotel into that matter ? ”

AsAbrams himself explainedlong ago , the Old Kirk shot was only broadcast internally and was quickly view as not usable , so Shatner was never made cognisant of its universe . It appears that Abrams ' signified of plot logic overruled his fan service instincts in this showcase , which is plausibly a good thing . It ’s too bad the same good history sense did n’t kick in when Rick Berman and company were lay togetherStar Trek : Generationsand decided to write in a whole arc for an over - the - hill Kirk that terminate with him sacrificing his life in the least - satisfying way imaginable .

Say what you want about Nimoy ’s appearance as Old Spock inStar Trek ( 2009 ) , at least it does n’t make you cringe in plethora . Some bad decisions were made in Abrams ' twoStar Trekmovies but at least we were spared the silly and most useless Shatner cameo imaginable . Thus far the reboot movies have altogether resisted the itch to take in Shatner for a terminal arc , and though Shatner hasexpressed interestin appearing inStar Trek : Discovery , there ’s been no describe move to fetch him onboard for a cameo . At least Shatner still has Twitter .