William Shatner accuses Paramount of "erasing" the past by omitting his original Captain Kirk from promo images

Paramount+ has committed a major faux pas, omitting the original Captain James T. Kirk from its "Star Trek Collection" page, which shows all of the captains from the previous shows (and current ones with the exception of Captain Freeman from Star Trek: Lower Decks)...except for William Shatner's version of Kirk. Instead, there is an image of Leonard Nimoy as Spock as well as one of Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura. The omission of Captain Freeman makes sense as she isn't a main character, but Captain Kirk?

And when a fan brought this to Shatner's attention, calling it a "massive flub," the actor didn't seem surprised. He speculated that the current group (assuming he means studio executives) "obviously feels threatened by the Kirk character."

Shatner went on to say that he wasn't bothered by it and encouraged fans to "let it be" after adding "A bunch of self righteous strangers thinking they are sending a message by erasing the past?
Who is going to forget? It’s everywhere. It’s so indoctrinated that it will take many generations to be forgotten no matter what they do."

Paramount+ hasn't explained why the original Captain Kirk is missing from its promotional images on the streaming channel, and even though Shatner says "let it be," fans aren't happy with the actor being left out, especially considering his character was the captain that started the entire franchise. Without William Shatner's Captain Kirk, there wouldn't have been a Star Trek: The Original Series. Could another actor have been found to play the role? Absolutely. But would they have played it as well as Shatner? Not a chance.

Paramount+ needs to fix this issue, even though Shatner isn't bothered by it. The fans are, and that is what should matter to the streaming channel. Leaving out an important part of Star Trek history is unacceptable.