Star Trek XII: Khan? Shatner?
2 min readStar Trek XI Director J.J. Abrams is open to the idea of including William Shatner in a sequel, or perhaps revisiting an old Star Trek foe.
As reported by MTV, with a new playing field, anything can happen. “The fun of this [new alternate Trek reality] is that the destiny of these characters is in their hands,” explained Abrams. “It’s not constrained by the pre-existing films or TV series. Believe me, whether it’s William Shatner or Khan … it would be ridiculous to not be open to those ideas.” “One of the reasons we wanted to break with the original Star Trek timeline was it felt restrictive,” Abrams added. “The idea, now that we are in an independent timeline, allows us to use any of the ingredients from the past, or come up with brand-new ones, to make potential stories.”
Khan Noonien Singh has also come up as a potential storyline for the future. “It’ll be fun to hear what Alex [Kurtzman] and Bob [Orci] are thinking about Khan,” said Abrams. “The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what’s been told before. [Khan and Kirk] exist, and while their history may not be exactly as people are familiar with, I would argue that a person’s character is what it is. Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there … even if he doesn’t have the same issues.”
With Kirk’s ultimate fate in the alternative timeline unknown and different than in the original timeline, there is no reason why Kirk couldn’t live to be much older, which opens the door for a possible Shatner appearance in a future film. “”I wouldn’t rule out anything,” said Abrams. “The point of creating this independent timeline is to not have the restrictions we had coming into this one. And one of those restrictions was that Kirk was dead.”
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