Five days ago, sources told
Badass Digest that a pivotal role had been written for
William Shatner in
Star Trek 3, and that it would involve him sharing scenes with
Leonard Nimoy. The original Kirk and Spock haven't been together on screen since 1991's
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Two days later, Shatner responded to the rumor by tweeting:
"I don't know anything about the current gossip. Nobody has contacted me. Right now it's just rhetoric to cause hype."
Earlier today, Shatner was in attendance at the
Wizard World Nashville Comic Con and confirmed that producer
J.J. Abrams has reached out to him about making an appearance in
Star Trek 3.
Abrams called Shatner to say,
"I’m calling, Bill, because the director of the Star Trek movie, the next one, has had an idea where you might be involved in it. So I am calling to see if you would be interested." Shatner replied
, "Oh, yeah. If it is meaningful." (via
trekmovie.com)
"When Leonard was Spock in that first movie, I said to Leonard "you know when you go back in time you are still old," Shatner added. "So it depends on what you do with the character. I said
"I would be delighted." And he said "you can’t say anything." And I said "I wont even tell my wife. I wont tell anyone. I wouldn’t do that, JJ. So I get back from Australia and it is all over the Internet, that the director held an interview and said they wanted Shatner and Nimoy to be in the next movie. I bet JJ is frothing at the mouth.
So the news is out that they have an idea that they want Leonard and myself. They might want Leonard and myself. I don’t know what to do with it. How do you get me fifty years later into the movie…I know it’s science fiction, but even I couldn’t come up with an idea.
Most of us had thought we had seen the last of William Shatner as James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk after seeing him die 1994's
Star Trek Generations while helping Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) defeat Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell). Then J.J. Abrams took over the franchise and gave it a hip reboot. There was of course a cameo appearance by Leonard Nimoy in 2009's
Star Trek, but there was also a cameo written for Shatner. His role was cut before filming ever began.