What if Paul Wesley wasn’t cast to play a ‘young James Kirk’ on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

We’re just assuming Paul Wesley is playing a “young” James Kirk” on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

The casting choice of Paul Wesley certainly got some people a bit miffed. The actor is playing James T. Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds show, which has prompted some discussion about the choice of actors. Kirk is supposed to be in his 20s at this point in the timeline, but Wesley is nearly 40.

Seems like an odd choice when you think about it, right? What if that was the point though, what if he wasn’t supposed to play a young Kirk after all. Sure, we’ve seen images that seem to suggest as such, like this one, where we see Wesley wearing a different badge than the Delta design we’re used to seeing. The Delta design was not a standard Starfleet logo at the time of the Original Series, but instead, the combadge reflected the ship you served on, and in that image, we see that Wesley isn’t wearing the Delta badge.

Yet, in this image, we clearly see him wearing the iconic Starfleet badge design. So what’s the deal?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may tell its stories from two different time periods

There are several possible ideas as to why Wesley is wearing two different types of badges.

1. The show is setting up a scene where Kirk has to take the Kobayashi Maru, and we see the scene of him trying and possibly failing to beat the test.

2. The show is telling the story from two points in time, one with Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) as captain of the ship, and the other with Wesley’s Kirk. Thus setting it up for a unique twist on Star Trek lore.

Both ideas make sense but the second idea would justify casting Wesley. He’s youthful-looking, so he could pass for someone younger, but he is also 40, so he could easily play Kirk as he takes the reigns of the Enterprise for the first time.

It would also explain why Uhura was brought into the cast as well.

So we’ll see how everything goes from here.