Summary
- Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie idea was inspired by his love for William Shatner’s portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk.
- Tarantino’s film would have involved time travel to 1920s Chicago, ignoring J.J. Abrams’ alternate Kelvin timeline in the newer Star Trek films.
- J.J. Abrams’ admitted “nobody likes the Kelvin timeline” to Quentin Tarantino, which could be a factor in the delay of Star Trek 4.
William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk is the reason why director Quentin Tarantino likes Star Trek. Tarantino grew up as a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, which originally aired on NBC from 1966-1969 – an era the Academy Award-winning writer and director immortalized in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. Tarantino’s Star Trek fandom led to his developing his own Star Trek movie, although that project didn’t move forward.
Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie would have been based on the Star Trek: The Original Series season 2 episode, “A Piece of the Action”, where Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise beamed down to a planet with a culture based on 1920s gangsters. Tarantino’s Star Trek would have involved time travel, however, with Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his USS Enterprise crew actually voyaging to Chicago of that era. As intriguing as Quentin Tarantino’s “hard-R” Star Trek movie might have been, the director changed his mind about making it and moved on.
Quentin Tarantino recently changed his mind about The Movie Critic as his tenth and possibly final film as a director, and he’s working on a different idea.
William Shatner Is Why Quentin Tarantino Likes Star Trek
It all boils down to James T. Kirk for Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino appeared as a guest on Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2019 to promote Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. Host Joshua Horowitz, who is also a lifelong Star Trek fan, veered the conversation to Tarantino’s Star Trek movie idea, and the director revealed that the source of his Star Trek fandom boils down to William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. Read his quote below:
Somebody asked me, ‘What is it about Star Trek that you like?’ Easy. William Shatner. I love William Shatner as James T. Kirk. That’s why I like Star Trek. The reason I like Star Trek more than Star Wars is William Shatner isn’t in Star Wars.” William Shatner especially as – well, I actually like William Shatner in almost everything – but William Shatner as James T. Kirk is… that is my connection. That is why I like it.
Quentin Tarantino also said the reason he enjoyed J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) movie so much is because, “I thought Chris Pine did a fantastic job not just playing Captain Kirk, but playing William Shatner’s Captain [Kirk]. He is William Shatner. He’s not just another guy, he’s William Shatner’s Captain Kirk.” Tarantino also praised Zachary Quinto’s performance as Spock and the whole cast embodying the iconic characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. But Quentin made it clear that his ‘in’ for Star Trek is William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk.
It’s safe to say Kirk epitomizes what a Star Trek Captain should be to Tarantino.
Quentin Tarantino’s love of William Shatner’s James T. Kirk is no surprise as the director grew up with a fascination of 1960s and 1970s film and television. Star Trek only grew in popularity after it was canceled by NBC and moved to syndication, and that first generation of Star Trek fans, counting Tarantino among them, idolized Shatner’s heroic and iconic portrayal of Captain Kirk. Quentin’s appreciation of Shatner’s acting talent extends to his other roles, but it’s safe to say Kirk epitomizes what a Star Trek Captain should be to Tarantino.
Listen to Quentin Tarantino on Happy Sad Confused podcast below:
Quentin Tarantino Didn’t Understand Star Trek Movies’ Kelvin Timeline & Neither Does J.J. Abrams
Tarantino’s Star Trek movie would have ignored the Kelvin Timeline
Quentin Tarantino also lashed out against the alternate Kelvin timeline in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies on Happy Sad Confused podcast. Abrams’ Star Trek films are set in a parallel reality which allowed his reboot to rewrite Star Trek history going forward. This included an encounter with Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek Into Darkness that occurred years earlier than it does in Star Trek: The Original Series. However, the concept of an alternate timeline eluded Tarantino, as he complained to Joshua Horowitz in his quote below:
I still don’t quite understand, and J.J. can’t explain it to me, and my editor has tried to explain it to me and I still don’t get it… About something happened in the first movie that now kind of wiped the slate clean. I don’t buy that. I don’t like it. I don’t appreciate it. I don’t… F** that… I want the whole series to have happened, it just hasn’t happened yet. No, Benedict Cumberbatch or whatever his name is not Khan, all right? Khan is Khan. And I told JJ, like, ‘I don’t understand this. I don’t like it.’ And then he was like, ‘Ignore it! Nobody likes it. I don’t understand it. Just do whatever you want. If you want it to happen the exact way it happens on the series it can.’
Quentin Tarantino didn’t quite grasp that J.J. Abrams’ alternate Kelvin timeline means that everything that Star Trek: The Original Series still happens in its original reality, and Abrams’ movies are set in a separate Star Trek universe with the same characters living different lives. Tarantino revealed that if he’d made his Star Trek movie, he would have ignored the Kelvin timeline and treated his movie as if it was happening in Star Trek’s Prime universe as an ersatz prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series.
Quentin Tarantino is right that Benedict Cumberbatch was miscast as Khan since his Khan is the same character as played by the late Ricardo Montalbán.
J.J. Abrams admitting to Quentin Tarantino that even he doesn’t understand the alternate Kelvin timeline and that “nobody likes it” is amusing. It could also represent one of the reasons why it’s been so difficult to get Star Trek 4 off the ground. Abrams’ Kelvin Timeline conceit now seems to be more of a burden than a benefit, especially since Star Trek‘s original universe is thriving in Paramount+’s various Star Trek TV series. But if Star Trek 4 does happen, as long as Chris Pine continues to evoke William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, it sounds like Quentin Tarantino will enjoy Pine’s performance.
