J.J. Abrams’ film series exists in an alternate timeline to the original show, and that allows cameos of old characters as “grown-up” versions of their past selves, due to a time-warp phenomena that occurred in the first of the newer films.
Leonard Nimoy, the original Mr. Spock, made a brief cameo in 2013’s Star Trek: Into Darkness, but it looks as though Shatner will not be getting the same treatment for this year’s Star Trek Beyond.
Shatner has said previously that he had been contacted about appearing in the new film, but according to the actor, those conversations never led to anything real.
In an interview with SFX magazine the actor said, “It would have been interesting to see what their fertile imaginations could have done with somebody who is 20 years older than when Captain Kirk died [in Star Trek Generations] and how they would have explained the difference in appearance. But that never came up. I’m sure they must have thought of it one time or another but I never had a substantial conversation about replaying the role.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic space exploration franchise, which first hit screens as a television series in 1966. Fans of the series can still expect to see Shatner in a variety of settings this year, and the actor has been actively promoting his upcoming book, An Autobiography of James T. Kirk.
Directed by Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious), the new film will be the 13th film in the Star Trek canon, and will star Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, and Zachary Quinto.
Star Trek Beyond will hit theaters on June 22.
