Did You Know? Star Trek’s Anson Mount wasn’t the first man to play both Christopher Pike and Batman

Anson Mount has played both Christopher Pike and Batman but he wasn’ the first.

Anson Mount is going to be starring as Christopher Pike in the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series. He’s reprising his role from his turn on Star Trek: Discovery, where he debuted as the character, alongside others like Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn. All three actors ended up portraying characters from the very first pilot of Star Trek, Pike, Spock, and Number One. The original pilot would be re-shot and only Spock survived, and Strange New Worlds is a series that will explore the adventures of that original crew going forward. Mount, however, isn’t just bringing Pike to screens this year, he’s also playing Batman.

While the Caped Crusader has nothing to do with Strange New Worlds in of itself, but Mount playing both is a big deal. He’s taking on the cape and cowl of Batman for the DC Comics animated film “Injustice”, where Mount’s Batman comes into direct conflict with Superman over Superman’s desire to take over the world.

Yet, despite the relative newness of Pike in the Star Trek zeitgeist, having only been utilized regularly since 2009 despite his debut in the 60s, Mount isn’t actually the first person to portray both Batman and Pike.

Sitting down with SyFyWire, Mount talked about the roles of Batman and Pike when he learned his predecessor was actually the first to take up both roles.

"SYFY Wire: I’m sure you were excited to voice Batman, but did it burst your bubble a little when you learned that you weren’t the first actor to portray Christopher Pike and be the Dark Knight?Well, I knew that going into both of these roles…SYFY Wire: So you knew that Bruce Greenwood had voiced Batman a couple of times (Greenwood portrayed Pike in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek films)?Oh, yeah. But that doesn’t bother me. If somebody came along and asked me to play Hamlet I don’t get caught up in the idea that it’s been done before. It’s a 450 year-old play. So that’s to be expected. I just focus on how I’m gonna do it, how I’m gonna make that role my own and not really get caught up on what people have done before."

Anson Mount and Bruce Greenwood now share even more in common

For those unfamiliar or completely forgot, Bruce Greenwood played the Kelvin Timeline version of Christopher Pike, the man who recruited James T. Kirk into Starfleet in the first place and was his commanding officer for a few minutes during the initial confrontation with Nero.

Greenwood also voiced Batman in Batman: Redhood, Young Justice, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (where the story is set during the 1800s and Batman has to track down and uncover the mystery of Jack the Ripper), and Batman: Death in the Family.

Greenwood’s time as Pike is over but he’s still voicing the Caped Crusader in the Young Justice cartoon. It’ll be interesting to see what Mount does with both roles and how long he’s up for doing both.