William Shatner is open to returning to Star Trek, sort of

William Shatner is a legend in not just Star Trek, or science fiction but in acting in general. His name still carries a lot of weight in the sci-fi world, and that’s partly why Shatner appeared on the History Channel series Ancient Aliens.

Yup, the show that has been memed into oblivion. Have a question? The answer is probably aliens. At least according to Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, the man who made that statement, and that hair, famous.

Shatner currently stars in The UnXplained, which also airs on the History Channel. His show follows Shatner as he tries to explain the unexplained in the world. So his appearance on Ancient Aliens is a bit of a crossover.

Yet, whenever Shatner appears on a science fiction or science fact-based property, the first question out of people’s mouths is “well….what about Star Trek?”

The fine folks at Inverse are no different. Their writer, Jake Kleinman, interviewed Shatner ahead of his crossover appearance and he asked the Trek-legend if Shatner would ever return to Star Trek. The 89-year-old wasn’t too optimistic, saying Star Trek was his past but…

"If they wrote an interesting role and they could explain the 55-year difference I might consider it. But at the moment, I’m really busy and Star Trek is in my past."

The question, to be clear, was in regards to doing another The Captains installment but Shatner did say he was open to the idea of a Mark Hamil-like cameo. Hamil returned to the role of Luke Skywalker for the Mandolorian’s second season and was de-aged for his appearance.

A return to Star Trek as a new character or even to reprise his role of James T. Kirk seems very unlikely. At 89-years-old, the motorcyclist enthusiast doesn’t seem to be interested in returning to the series that made him a household name and that’s ok.

It’s been 27 years since Shatner donned his Starfleet outfit, last appearing as Kirk for the 1994 film, Star Trek: Generations. It’s only been 10 years, however, since  Shatner did anything Star Trek-related when he served as host and director for the film The Captains.