Nicolas Cage Has A Very Specific Demand For A Potential Star Trek Role

With his "nouveau shamanic" acting method and penchant for oddball purchases (including a couple of European castles and a pyramid-shaped tomb), Nicolas Cage has managed to curate a reputation for unpredictability. So it should probably come as no surprise that he'd love to add "Star Trek" to his résumé. "I've been hearing some talk about it, but nothing real," he told TrekMovie at the 2024 Saturn Awards. "There [were] a few comments from Paramount, but who knows?"

At the same event, Cage was slightly more candid with Screen Rant, revealing, "There were a couple of phone calls," though he didn't go into specifics. He then emphasized the script, saying, "It would have to be something that I could really add my flavor to; have some pop and some spark. I wouldn't want to just do anything, because I have so much love for the franchise."

It might be fun to see Cage play the next Khan or decked out in cranial ridges — he'd even make a good candidate for the Daystrom Institute. But there's one place in the "Star Trek" world that really holds appeal for him. "I want to be on the Enterprise," he continued. "I want to be on the bridge."

For fans of spacefaring sci-fi and fantasy, it's a remarkable time to be alive. Both the "Star Trek" and the "Star Wars" franchises are experiencing long-running revivals, in large part thanks to the advent of streaming platforms. But fans won't see Nicolas Cage in a "Star Wars" movie anytime soon. When Yahoo! asked the actor how he feels about joining the "Star Wars" universe, he made it clear where his loyalties lie. "'No' is the answer. I'm not really down. I'm a Trekkie, man," he declared. Driving the point home, he added, "I'm not in the 'Star Wars' family. I'm in the 'Star Trek' family."

And it's not just lip service — Cage's love of "Star Trek" runs deep. "I grew up watching [William] Shatner. I thought [Chris] Pine was terrific in the movies," he said. Like many Trekkies, Cage feels the series' often nuanced sociopolitical commentary elevates it above standard sci-fi shows like "Lost in Space." As he put it, "What science fiction is really all about and why it's such an important genre is that [it] is really where you can say whatever you want, however you feel, you put it on a different planet, you put it in a different time or in the future ... And 'Star Trek' really embraced that."