Although 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country marked the last hurrah for The Original Series cast together, William Shatner’s James T. Kirk had one more cinematic adventure left in him. Three years later, Shatner reprised his most famous role for Star Trek Generations, which ended with Kirk during his team-up with Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard. While the manner in which Kirk died is a polarizing topic among Star Trek fans, Shatner has explained how he approached filming this emotional moment in the franchise’s seventh movie.
In an interview with Variety, William Shatner addressed that he had some “say” in how James T. Kirk perished in Star Trek Generations, namely that the character he’d played for over 25 years by that point would face death with a sense of wonder, which makes a lot of sense. As he explained:
I’m of the opinion that you die the way you live. I thought Kirk would die with a ‘Wow, look at that coming at me. There’s a guy with a scythe. Holy shit!’ He’d seen all these weird aliens before. Here comes death and he meets it with awe and a sense of discovery.
For those who need a refresher, William Shatner’s James Kirk was fatally injured when he fell from a collapsing metal catwalk after de-cloaking the missile that Malcolm McDowell’s Soran, Star Trek Generations’ main antagonist, planned to launch. You can stream Generations with your HBO Max subscription to remind yourself of the full scope of Soran’s grand plan involving the Nexus, but ultimately he was defeated, and before he died, Kirk told Picard that helping his fellow captain of the Enterprise save the day was “fun.” Kirk’s final words were, “Oh my,” and Picard then retrieved the body and gave it a proper burial on Veridian III.
Although William Shatner later wrote a series of novels where James T. Kirk was resurrected thanks to an alliance between the Romulans and the Borg, within the official canon, Generations marked the end of his journey. As Shatner saw it, taking into account all the amazing things Kirk saw and did during his years exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations, of course he would be captivated by the presence of death and embrace walking into the great unknown. For Kirk to face something that grand any differently would feel out of character.
We’re coming up on three decades since William Shatner last played James Kirk, and although the actor was given an opportunity to cameo in 2009’s Star Trek, he turned it down, calling what was written “the stupidest scene I have ever heard of” in 2017. By 2021, Shatner said he would consider playing Kirk again if “they could explain the 55-year difference,” but otherwise he’s keeping busy enough and is comfortable with Star Trek being in his past. Along with sharing his comments about Kirk’s death scene, Shatner has been in the news lately for explaining why he skipped Leonard Nimoy’s funeral and calling Elon Musk out on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Chris Pine played James Kirk in the three movies set in Star Trek’s Kelvin timeline, but given the numerous setbacks Star Trek 4 keeps facing, it’s hard to say if we’ll ever see him return to that role either. Then in the TV realm, Paul Wesley debuted as a younger version of the main Kirk in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 finale, and he’ll be back for Season 2, which premieres to Paramount+ subscribers on June 15.
