Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner, William Shatner Comment on Fate of Captain Kirk’s Body

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 revealed that James T. Kirk’s death on Veridian III in , or at least it wasn’t the end for his body. Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6 revealed that Kirk’s body is in storage at Daystrom Station, an off-the-books facility run by Section 31, a particularly ruthless subdivision of Starfleet Intelligence that plays by its own set of rules. The reveal got the internet buzzing, of course, and now Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas has spoken on what it does and doesn’t mean.

Matalas participated remotely in a GalaxyCon with the Inglorious Treksperts podcast hosts. During the panel, Matalas confirmed that his putting Kirk’s body in Daystrom Station was, at least in part, because of his dissatisfaction with how Kirk’s story ended in Star Trek Generations, saying “Look, it’s not how I would have sent Kirk off, clearly because I just put his body in Daystrom.” (Credit to TrekMovie for spotting and transcribing his comments).

Is Captain Kirk alive in Star Trek’s future?

Okay, great. Kirk’s body didn’t get left under some rocks on Veridian III. What does that mean for Kirk’s future in the Star Trek universe? Well, nothing yet. He’s still deceased.

“Look, Kirk is dead,” Matalas confirmed. “We figured, ‘Is his body really just under a pile of rocks on that planet?’ We’re not committed… we’re not saying he is resurrected.”

If Kirk does come back to life after Star Trek Generations, it wouldn’t be the first time. William Shatner himself wrote a series of novels conveying Kirk’s post-resurrection adventures, which fans refer to as the “Shatnerverse,” beginning with The Return in 1996 and continuing for 10 years after, until 2006’s Captain’s Glory.

“Is it a tip of the hat to The Return, which is a wonderful book I recommend to all of you? Maybe,” Matalas said. “We just leave it open that someday some brilliant writer could do something. That could be an animated thing. That could be anything. It’s just to keep, as my friend Spock is fond of saying: ‘There are always possibilities.’ That was the idea behind that.”

William Shatner Comments on Kirk’s Return

It seems that Shatner was made aware of the fate of Kirk’s body in Star Trek: Picard Season 3. The 92-year-old star chimed on Twitter (after letting everyone know how he felt about its new verification policy):

“I guess we know where the disappearing @StarTrek Captain went!  It’s like the old game of Rock, Paper, Scissors but it’s now Rock, Panel, Station!  #ProjectPhoenix?😳🤔 #WhereisKirk? 🤷🏼😝👇🏻 I guess it’s all an @AprilFools 😵‍💫 Have a wonderful weekend!”

How to watch Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+. Star Trek: Picard‘s first two seasons are already streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.