William Shatner explains why he won’t be returning as Kirk

William Shatner explains why he wouldn’t return as Captain Kirk in a full-time television role.

With Patrick Stewart’s surprising return to full-time television as Jean-Luc Picard, many fans are wondering if there are any other Star Trek cast members set to make a comeback in iconic roles.

After several versions of the answer “no” from William Shatner about whether he plans to come back as Captain Kirk in a future Star Trek series, Shatner elaborated about why he wouldn’t be making his own comeback.

"“Right now I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” explained Shatner. “I’ve been offered many series over the years. But I haven’t done them because of the commitment of time. And at this stage of my life, that’s more valuable than anything else.”"

And Shatner has been very busy doing exactly what he wants to do. Currently, he enjoys breeding dogs and riding horses and writing novels and will much more happily (and insistently) talk about those things over his past in Star Trek as the beloved Captain James T. Kirk.

And, while his enthusiasm for his current projects is understandable, his blatant reluctance to interact with fans regarding their fandom — when that’s exactly what he’s been engaged to do at conventions and comic cons, for example — is frustrating, to say the least.

In any case, despite William Shatner’s reluctance to make a full-time commitment to Star Trek, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of making guest appearances as Captain Kirk.

Of course, there are a number of challenges preventing the possibility, not least of all inventing a creative plot hole around Kirk’s apparent death at the end of Star Trek: Generations.

I guess they could just pull another version of him out the Nexus, since apparently the Nexus transcends time and there will always be a version of him there despite his escape. Who knows.

Source: CinemaBlend