Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk Almost Returned in Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 was released on Netflix this month and the show marks the franchise’s first computer-animated series and first installment made for younger viewers. While fans await news of a third season, the creators behind the series are sharing some storylines and appearances that didn’t make the cut in Season 2. Co-showrunner Dan Hageman recently revealed that they almost made Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) the Captain of the Enterprise. While Mulgrew does reprise her role from Star Trek: Voyager in the entire animated series, she’s not the only big name from the franchise who could have been a part of the show. Turns out, they also wanted Chris Pine to reprise the role of Captain Kirk.

“At one point, I think we had discussed the possibility of what other universes can we explore?” co-executive producer Aaron J. Waltke explained to Screen Rant. “And I think at one point, we talked about trying to bring in even the Kelvin universe, but we just simply didn’t have time in the ‘Cracked Mirror’ episode, where they’re going into all the different universes. And we were like, ‘Oh, what if we brought in that Captain Kirk, and he had to help them for a couple of episodes?’”

“It was a cool idea, but it was just a little bit too many sauces in the stew kind of a thing,” he continued. “I think it would have been fun. But I think it would have diverted from the story we were telling. It would have been the Captain Kirk show for a couple of episodes. Maybe that’s season three, we’ll find out.” 

Will Chris Pine Play Captain Kirk Again?

There have been many rumors that a fourth installment to the Kelvin Timeline would be coming, but there have been no positive updates in recent years. Pine spoke with ComicBook ahead of the release of Wish last year, and he revealed he hadn’t seen any new scripts or heard anything new in a while. 

“Not that I know [of],” Pine told ComicBook.com when asked about plans for a fourth film. When we asked if he had seen any scripts, he said, “Of course not.”

Pine played Captain James T. Kirk in a trilogy of films between 2009 and 2016. In Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond, Pine was joined by a crew that included Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, and Karl Urban. The movies represented the first time Star Trek had been rebooted since its original TV series in 1966, and even seemingly tied off the old continuity by bringing back Leonard Nimoy to bring a close to his version of Spock.

Stay tuned for more updates about Star Trek. Currently, you can stream the first two seasons of Star Trek: Prodigy on Netflix.