Buffy’s Best Villain Almost Played Star Trek’s Stupidest Villain
James Marsters is one of those omnipresent genre actors who seems to have been in damn near everything. He popped onto most of our radar screens playing the antiheroic vampire Spike on Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but he’s also appeared in Torchwood, Caprica, Smallville, The Clone Wars, and Supernatural over the years.
James Marsters For Star Trek: Nemesis?
It turns out James Marsters also could have played a major role in the Star Trek universe a few years back: he apparently auditioned for the role of Shinzon, Captain Picard’s younger clone, in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis.
That role eventually went to actor Tom Hardy, who has gone on to fame with roles in Inception and as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Speaking to the Australian Associated Press back in 2012, James Marsters said, “I don’t think I sucked eggs, but I didn’t do well enough. But I wish I had, I would have been proud to be Patrick Stewart’s clone.”
Would James Marsters Have Worked?
It would have been interesting to see James Marsters take on the role and to see him up against Patrick Stewart on the big screen.
The coulda-been role isn’t Marsters’ only interest in the Star Trek universe, however.
“I have an idea for a Star Trek series but I haven’t shopped it yet,” said the the actor at the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate, and as of now, nothing has ever come of it.
James Marsters Is A Fantasy And Sci-Fi Fan
Finally, James Marsters explained why he was so attracted to the science fiction and fantasy genres, speaking of their ability to deal in metaphor and allegory.
He said, “Frankly sci-fi and fantasy can talk about social issues in a more a direct way that other more realistic forms can’t do. I like imagining very different social situations than the one I find myself in… and your imagination can run with that (on a sci-fi series). When you’re cast as a cop, you’re thinking, ‘I know what it’s like to sit in a car and drink coffee’.”
Tom Hardy As Shinzon
As for Tom Hardy, well, Star Trek fans felt that Shinzon, as the main antagonist, was criminally underdeveloped and, even worse, just kind of boring. That’s not something James Marsters could have likely solved.
We never truly understood the motivations behind his actions, and in that one he turned pretty one-dimensional pretty quickly.
This really wasn’t Tom Hardy’s fault mind you, most would agree his acting chops in Star Trek: Nemesis were there. And he ended up turning out a career that’s been filled with some of the best roles around.
The Film’s Weak Point?
Overall, the Star Trek consensus is that Shinzon was a weak point of the film, and that Tom Hardy’s talents were not fully utilized in the character.
There should have been considerably more time devoted to Picard and his clone. Was it the only failing of the film? No, but it was a big one. James Marsters likely dodged one here.
James Marsters Career
James Marsters played Spike on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, becoming a fan-favorite character over the years. More recently, he had a main role as Victor Stein on the Hulu series Runaways from 2017-2019.
While Spike remains his most well-known character, it could have been a Star Trek role to push him over the top. But it didn’t happen.
