star trek debuted its new captain James T. Kirk – the role made iconic by William Shatner in the classic Star Trek TV series. Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley has been announced to take on the role of Captain Kirk in the new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – a prequel to Star Trek TOS. It was a mystery when and how Paul Wesley’s Kirk would debut in Strange new worlds – but now we know.
(WARNING – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds SPOILERS Follow)
Paul Wesley’s Kirk makes his debut in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 finale, “A Quality of Mercy” – and it’s substantial!
After Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) tries to change his own doomed future, he’s met by a future version of himself from an alternate timeline – the one where Pike cheated death. This Pike variant sends the Prime Timeline Pike into the alternate past, to find out why, exactly, he must accept his own terrible fate – and all that comes with it. During this “It’s a (not so) wonderful life” experience, Pike meets a unique captain: James T. Kirk.
Pike and Kirk (and the rest of the Enterprise crew) all work together to defeat a Romulan bird of prey hunting Starfleet outposts – but also end up sparking a war between the Romulans and the Federation which reveals that the Pike variant kills billions and drags on for years. Pike eventually returns to his own timeline upon realizing that his sacrifice will trigger events – particularly in Spock’s life – that are key to the Prime Timeline. Pike’s alternate universe experiment also triggers another big event: Pike is studying his the universal version of James T. Kirk, seeing him as a worthy successor to the Enterprise.
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As Star Trek: Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers explained to ComicBook that Paul Wesley wasn’t the Kirk choice that came to mind for many – but Star Trek casting directors knew better:
“We auditioned a bunch of people. We talked to a bunch of people. Look, we saw some really interesting talented actors, but when it came to embodying the spirit and ideas of James T. Kirk, he’s the one we all saw and were like, ‘Oh yeah,'” Myers explains. “And I have to thank Margery Simkin and Orly Sitowitz, who are the casting directors, because they were the ones who were like, ‘We’re thinking Paul Wesley.’ And we were like, ‘Really? Interesting.”
Paul Wesley spoke to THR about playing the role of Kirk. As the actor points out, he was able to avoid a lot of performance pressure by first being cast as an alternate universe version of Kirk, who was shaped by a very different story in a reality where Captain Pike is not never left the Enterprise:
“Obviously the Season 1 finale is an alternate timeline that doesn’t exist, because it takes place in the future. He’s not the captain of the Enterprise. He’s never met Spock and he never had all of those experiences. He’s a Kirk that shaped differently,” Wesley explains. “So in the season finale, it was really open to interpretation.”
Wesley also reveals how far he looked back to nail these ways from Kirk:
“I rewatched every episode of TOS, trying to figure out posture or where to put my hands – really just feeling at home in that chair… It was one of the things I needed to figure out, so I felt like I had sat there a thousand times. And that’s how it is in this [Captain Kirk] outfit. I know this outfit; I feel at home in it.”
Finally, Wesley teases the upcoming debut of the Captian Kirk who will continue to fulfill the destiny we know he will have – when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns for season 2:
“In the second season, we meet a Kirk that we know better. I think the most important thing was to respect the important pillars of his personality: his morality, his incredible instincts, his courage, his empathy towards others and his protection. is of his crew.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.
