Captain Kirk says he is open to a return to Star Trek – if the storytelling is stellar.
“It’s an intriguing idea,” said William Shatner, the legendary captain of the starship Enterprise, speaking to the Canadian Press on a video call while promoting his new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill, which arrives Tuesday.
“It’s almost impossible, but it was a great role and so well-written, and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it,” said the 93-year-old actor.
Shatner’s last appearancewas in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations, and – spoiler alert – he dies.
But Shatner cited a software company he promotes that would allow him to play a younger version of the captain. The company, Otoy, specializes in technology that “takes years off of your face, so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are,” Shatner said.
Shatner even has a scenario where Kirk is resurrected.
“A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it,” he said. “‘We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”