Star Trek’s Walter Koenig gets morbid talking up Galaxy Con event

Star Trek’s 86-year-old icon, Walter Koenig, wants you to hurry up and meet him before it’s too late.

Star Trek is lucky to still have three of its iconic actors alive nearly 60 years after the franchise debuted on television. William Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig are still with us all these years later and remain the only three remaining original cast members still alive. Shatner, 92 years old, played the original Captain James Kirk, while Takei and Koenig are both 86 and played Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Checkov respectively.

All three men still make appearances to some degree or another, with Koenig arguably the most attached to the Star Trek franchise than anyone else from his era. He most recently voiced the relative of his iconic character, Anton Chekov in Star Trek: Picard.

So Koenig is still very active these days and is very beloved by the fandom. But Koenig got a bit morbid this week when he took to Twitter (X) to hype up his next dates on his calendar, Galaxy Con in Austin, TX on Sept 1-3.

In his tweet, he tells fans to meet him before it’s too late.

Walter Koenig touches on an important message in the Tweet about the Star Trek convention

It may seem dark and even macabre to say such a thing, but it’s not untrue. While we can go at any time, the older we get the more likely we are not to be here when the sun rises. After 86 years, Koenig, who has had to see just about all of his cast mates go, understands that better than most.

While mostly said in jest (we hope), the fact remains that if you haven’t met the likes of Koenig and others from that era of Star Trek, you are in fact running out of time. It’s not a message we like to hear, as being reminded of death isn’t something most people are comfortable with, but it’s important to acknowledge.

Koenig is closer to the end of his life than the beginning and fans need to realize that before it’s too late. Let’s celebrate these icons while they’re still with us, and not after they’ve passed.