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Back in 2009, JJ Abrams rebooted the Star Trek movie franchise by recasting the original series characters from James T Kirk to Uhura. A prequel of sorts, 2009’s Star Trek saw the crew of the USS Enterprise meet for the first time, but in an alternate reality. Leonard Nimoy, who was in his late seventies at the time, reprised his role as Spock Prime, who had travelled back to the past from the original Star Trek timeline.
Nimoy also briefly cameoed in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, which would be his final film before his death in 2015 at the age of 83. Then in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, Zachary Quinto’s young Spock learned of the death of Spock Prime and viewed a photograph of the original timeline’s USS Enterprise crew in their middle age.
Many Star Trek fans may have enjoyed seeing Nimoy reprise Spock for the JJ Abrams movies before he died. However, his original Captain James T Kirk co-star William Shatner wasn’t a fan at all.
Speaking previously with Express.co.uk, Shatner said he found Nimoy’s inclusion unjustified. The Kirk star claimed: “Leonard Nimoy was in some of those films, but it was totally gratuitous. They just wanted to put Spock in there and I didn’t admire that.”
After starring in six Star Trek movies, Shatner last reprised Kirk in 1994’s Star Trek Generations opposite Sir Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard. But despite his views on modern Star Trek’s use of Nimoy, the 92-year-old has been open in recent years to return to his career-defining role on one condition.
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Shatner told us: “Y’know, Star Trek is a marvellous show. How it’s lasted all these years, why it has all these iterations, I don’t know. spend the time speculating why Star Trek has been and is so popular. In fact, nobody really knows.
“So I would be delighted to be a part of Star Trek if it was something worthy. If they could come up with a way of putting a character I played in a movie where it functioned as a point in the movie [and] made the movie move along, I’d be delighted.”
