William Shatner Says He Wasn't Offered A Cameo In Star Trek Reboot

If you thought J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot could've used an appearance by William Shatner, you're not the only one. Shatner agrees with you.

Speaking at Star Trek Las Vegas (via Trek Movie), Shatner said that he was never approached about a cameo in the 2009 film starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. When the fan said he thought it was a shame that Shatner wasn't in the movie, Shatner replied, "I do too!"

When the fan said a "reliable source" said there was actually a scene written for the original Star Trek actor, Shatner said, "Reliable source? That's fake news! But seriously, I have heard that story, but it has never been in my consciousness. I am not aware of that at all."

However, TrekMovie.com reportedly confirmed that a scene was indeed written for Shatner, but that it was only pitched to his creative team. When producers decided not to include the scene in the movie, it was never presented to Shatner. 

The fan described the scene, which would have featured Leonard Nimoy's Spock giving Zachary Quinto's Spock a recording of the original Kirk, which would've been played by Shatner. 

But Shatner said he probably wouldn't have been on board with that idea anyway. "That is the stupidest scene I have ever heard of!," he said. "When I saw Leonard [Nimoy] in the first movie that J.J. [Abrams] made and he went back in time, I said to Leonard, 'You know you are old when you go back in time and you are still old!' Those are gratuitous scenes!"

Of course, it would've been tricky for Abrams to bring back Shatner as Kirk, even with the alternate timeline of the reboots: the character was killed off in 1994's Star Trek: Generations. Abrams actually talked about it last year, again via Trek Movie.

"In all the years we've been working on this, I've yet to hear a pitch [about bringing back Shatner as Kirk] that didn't sound too contorted and contrived for an audience to swallow. And I've talked to (Shatner) about it. If Kirk had lived, there'd be an answer. But there's something about his having died that makes it impossible."

While we shouldn't expect Shatner in future Star Trek movies, take a look at some of the biggest plot holes in Star Trek Beyond.