‘Star Trek’ Star Wants His Iconic Character to Have His Own Spinoff Series originally appeared on Parade.
Actor Paul Wesley is opening up about playing the iconic character, Captain James T. Kirk, on the Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
While speaking to TV Insider in July 2025, Wesley discussed the possibility of a spinoff series focusing on Kirk, who was originally played by William Shatner in Star Trek: The Original Series, which aired for three seasons until 1969. As Star Trek: SNW is a prequel to Star Trek: TOS, Wesley’s version of Kirk is not yet the captain of the Enterprise.
Wesley told the publication that he’s interested in portraying Kirk in a series, which would take place between the events of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: SNW and the first season of Star Trek: TOS.
“It’s not up to me, but I have expressed my desire, probably all too often, to the showrunners and whomever else asks. I would love nothing more than to do a Kirk series along with our beloved characters in TOS and introduce the characters that we have yet to introduce in TOS, Chekov and Sulu, and, I mean, you name it. And I think it would be fantastic,” said Wesley during the interview.
He said noted that, “The end of Strange New Worlds and then the beginning, which is the first episode of TOS where we meet Kirk, which is ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before,’ there’s a chunk of time in between there.”
“So you have Kirk at the helm in episodes that we have yet to see,” stated the actor.
He then said he believes “there’s so much room to explore.”
“And I think you can go into the TOS sort of time. You can explore time between episodes, you can explore time before the first episode. There’s just so much story to be mined here, and I would love nothing more than to play in that series,” continued Wesley.
During a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con 2025, held the weekend of July 25, Wesley said he was grateful to have the opportunity to play Kirk.
“I’m so unbelievably honored. I can’t express how deeply grateful I am for the opportunity. I’m trying my best to do everything that I can to pay respect and homage to everything William Shatner created and we just try to have fun,” said the Vampire Diaries actor.
The third season of Star Trek: SNW premiered on July 17.
‘Star Trek’ Star Wants His Iconic Character to Have His Own Spinoff Series first appeared on Parade on Jul 28, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
