William Shatner on Kirk’s “Generations” Death: “I Would Have Done Something Else”

Star Trek‘s original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, recently discussed his disappointment with the handling of Kirk’s death in Generations, his desire to be in another Star Trek film.

Shatner, who screened his new film Get a Life! at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, told Crave Online he would have handled the character’s demise differently.

I would have done something else. It was all against me. The studio wanted to try The Next Generation to see if they could break through this $100 million [ceiling.] It seemed that an audience was coming, they could count on an audience and a box office of $100 million but they thought that the “Next Generation” cast would bring in more, and it didn’t. They were stuck with the same $100 million or thereabouts. I wish that there had been more trumpets for the death of the character.

Discussing Get A Life!, which premiers July 28th on EPIX, Shatner said:

Shatner has been very vocal in recent years regarding his desire to be in one of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek films.

How much fun it would’ve been to be in a J.J. Abrams movie playing with a whole new imagination about what this character would have done. I wrote several novels about the way I thought Captain Kirk would’ve lived in a series of books that I did. So I wrote several autobiographical novels about it.

He once again reaffirmed his hope to once again appear on-screen as Captain Kirk.

Well, I would love to. I don’t know how he would deal with the aging face and body. That’s a conundrum for science fiction, how to deal with the aging me out there in space. How did I age? I think it’s insoluble.

To read the complete interview, visit Crave Online.