William Shatner is Open To Returning To Star Trek as Captain Kirk

There were rumors about William Shatner reprising his role as Captain James T. Kirk in Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond this year, but it looks like those rumors turned up to be false. However, the actor said that he's open to reprise his role as the future Captain Kirk, if the story is right.

"When we finished our movies — the six movies I made — we were putting Kirk into glasses, graying hair, a little old. I wrote a series of novels [in which] they allowed me to tell my story of Captain Kirk. So in a series ofStar Trek novels, half a dozen of them, I — taking from my own life, of life and death and love and loss — I created this whole world of Star Trek for Captain Kirk," Shatner told The Hollywood Reporter (Starting with 1995's Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, the Shatner co-authored Kirk books brought the character back to life in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation.) "I would have loved to have done them [as movies]," he said.

In 1994's Star Trek: Generations, we saw that Captain Kirk died, but Shatner acknowledged rumors about his return and admitted that he had been contacted about the idea. The writers couldn't figure out a way to fit Kirk into the story

"I would play an old Captain Kirk, absolutely," he said. "You would have [to have] an interesting character, not a cameo, like 'Here I am, aren't I interesting?' It's the ongoing world, it's the world within science-fiction. Yes, you age within the universe. Time goes on, but time bends, as well. There's so many things you could do."

You can listen to Shatner talk about his experience making the original Trek on the site's Awards Chatter podcast.