Director JJ Abrams has confirmed he wanted William Shatner to appear in the new Star Trek movie.
“We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn't quite feel right,” he told AMCtv . “The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo.
We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves.”
Keeping to Canon
Abrams also claimed that the fate of Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Generations caused a headache for the writers when they tried inserting a Shatner cameo into the picture.
“The story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling,” he added.
“It's funny -- a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon.
“Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”
Obviously Abrams isn’t aware of – or has chosen to ignore – the Shatnerverse. Can Trek really be Trek without Bill? Sound off, below.
