William Shatner brings a sparkle of class to whatever he touches, whether it's TV work, movies or inexplicable covers of Elton John songs sung between three different William Shatners – but the new Star Trek movie won't see any of that.
And that's because William Shatner won't be in the new Star Trek movie. Although he was rumoured to have a cameo in the movie alongside Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner has revealed that meetings with the new Star Trek director JJ Abrams were unsuccessful and the movie will go ahead sans Shatner. And now William Shatner can't stop bitching about the Star Trek snub. But can you blame him? After all, we'd be bitter if our derided egomaniacal role in a TV show that hasn't been made for almost 40 years wasn't reprised in a movie that's set several years before the TV show we starred in 40 years ago, too. Or something. Oh look, we've confused ourselves now.
If everything goes to plan, the new Star Trek movie will start shooting this week. And a lot of people are finding it very exciting, mainly thanks to the involvement of JJ Abrams – the man behind Lost and the person you need to blame when you realise that all the Klingons in the new movie have been replaced with polar bears and angry wafts of smoke. JJ Abrams has put an interesting cast together for his new Star Trek movie – the baddie from Heroes will be Spock and an unknown actor will be Captain Kirk and Eric Bana will be the villain, which all sounds good, but Scotty will be played by Simon Pegg and Sulu by John Cho from Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies, which makes us worry that JJ Abrams wants to turn Star Trek into some kind of red-font stoner comedy.
But one person who won't get to be in the new Star Trek is William Shatner, a man who has possibly given more to Star Trek than anyone else over the years. He was in the Star Trek TV series, the Star Trek animated series, seven Star Trek films (included one he directed), four Star Trek videogames and has written nine Star Trek books. William Shatner is so dedicated to Star Trek that he's even able to piss out dilithium crystals at will. But meetings with JJ Abrams haven't gone well and the rumoured Star Trek cameo from William Shatner isn't going to happen any more, as the Associated Press reports:
The original Capt. Kirk is disheartened he won't get to boldly go anywhere with his old pal Spock in the new "Star Trek" movie. While Leonard Nimoy is reprising his role as the pointy-eared Vulcan in next year's science-fiction flick, William Shatner is not on board as Kirk. "I couldn't believe it. I'm not in the movie at all. Leonard, God bless his heart, is in, but not me," Shatner, 76, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought, what a decision to make, since it obviously is a decision not to make use of the popularity I have to ensure the movie has good box office. It didn't seem to be a wise business decision."
Maybe it was a clash of egos that kept William Shatner from getting a role on Star Trek, or maybe science hasn't advanced enough to build the gargantuan man-corset Shatner would need to squeeze into his Starfleet uniform again. We just don't know – all we know is that William Shatner will be nowhere to be seem when Star Trek is released next Christmas.
Maybe it's for the best, though. After all, if William Shatner can't get a role on Star Trek then none of the other original cast members are likely to get a shot either. And, if nothing else, at that will save people the hassle of trying to get Scotty's ashes down from that mountain again.
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