Exclusive: Star Trek Plans To Have Captain Kirk Meet Captain Kirk
It's been a while since Captain Kirk last met Captain Kirk, right? We've learned that Paramount wants to set that right.
This article is more than 2 years old
Over the decades, Star Trek has introduced a lot of ideas to the screen. In season two of the original series, the writers introduced the idea of the Mirror Universe, and we met an evil Mirror Kirk. It wasn’t the first time we’d met another version of the Captain. It’s one of the ways we got to know Kirk so well, seeing other iterations of him. All this time later, we have multiple new Star Trek series coming to streaming and the JJ Abrams universe on the big screen. Doesn’t it seem like the time for things to get a bit weirder? Paramount is counting on you to agree.
We’ve learned from our trusted and proven inside source that Paramount wants to make a big story swing by having multiple versions of a fan-favorite Captain meet on screen. Of course, we’re talking about Star Trek’s Captain James Tiberius Kirk, the man who won over audiences in the 1960s when played by William Shatner and today has managed to do it again with Chris Pine.
To be clear, our source was only able to share that Paramount wants to have multiple Kirks via the multiverse and for them to meet. That doesn’t mean either William Shatner or even Chris Pine would necessarily be involved in the Star Trek production. However, if at least one of those actors wasn’t involved, audiences would be heartbroken, right? If they’re going to give us multiple Kirks, it will only make sense that Paramount is envisioning these actors meet up. After all, it’s something audiences have been asking for since discovering that Chris Pine could pull off the iconic role, probably the best surprise from the JJ Abrams films.
It will be interesting to see how Paramount decides to go about making this happen. Right now, the heart of Star Trek is happening on streaming. Chris Pine has said that he wants to play the character again. While he’s said this about Star Trek 4 and about the possibility of a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script, it’s fair to believe that there is a good chance he would show up on a series if that were Paramount’s plan. William Shatner has said that he would really prefer to appear as the character in a feature film. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t appear in a television series, but that is what he would prefer.
It does feel like if Paramount manages to grab these actors for a story with multiple Kirks, that the best way to do that story justice would be to have a Star Trek film. Perhaps in the mysterious movie set for release in 2023? One of the only things we know about the project, other than a release date, is that JJ Abrams is producing.
As Star Trek: The Original Series fans may be able to tell you, we’ve seen multiple Captain Kirks meet up on screen before. We’ve seen robot Captain Kirks! We’ve seen Mirror Kirk, Alternate Kirks, and while it is far from a comfortable episode to watch in 2021, we’ve also seen a poorly handled female Captain Kirk. Having multiple Kirks meet up isn’t new, and perhaps that’s why fans long ago expected that Chris Pine and William Shatner would appear on screen together in the role. However Paramount decides to handle having multiple Kirks from the Multiverse meet, it sounds like something they’ll need to have some top writers on hand for hilarious dialogue, and probably some obligatory jokes about all the Kirk-sized ego fitting into one ship.
