<\/p>\n
Actor Paul Wesley<\/a><\/strong> took on the iconic role of James T. Kirk for the hit Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds<\/em>. As Star Trek<\/em> fans are well aware, William Shatner<\/a><\/strong>, 94, originated the bold, brave captain of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series<\/em>, which ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969.<\/p>\n In a September 2025 interview with Entertainment Tonight<\/a>, alongside his castmate,Ethan Peck<\/strong><\/a>, Wesley shared that he had an unexpected interaction with Shatner when he was first cast as Kirk for Star Trek: SNW<\/em> Season 1, which premiered in 2022.<\/p>\n According to Wesley, he “had just shot [his] first episode of Stranger Worlds<\/em>” when he went on an airplane that Shatner happened to be on. He said that he initially thought he was being pranked.<\/p>\n “At first I was like, I don’t know. This is so bizarrely [sic], like, am I hallucinating or is this a hidden camera show? Did Paramount do this? But I quickly realized it wasn’t. It was just a coincidence,” said the Vampire Diaries<\/em> star during the interview.<\/p>\n Wesley then said he started his conversation with Shatner by reminding him that they used to be neighbors. He said he eventually decided to tell him he was cast as a younger version of Kirk for Star Trek: SNW<\/em>.<\/p>\n “We’re mid-flight and I’m like, ‘I got to tell him. I got to tell him. I got to.’ And I’m like, ‘Bill, listen,'” said Wesley to Peck, who plays Mr. Spock, originated by the late Leonard Nimoy<\/a><\/strong>. “He was like reading a book, and I was like, ‘I hate to interrupt you, but I got cast in a role that I think you know well. You might be familiar with.’ And he was just like, ‘Well, what’s the role?’ And I was like, ‘You know, Kirk.'”<\/p>\n Wesley theorized that Shatner didn’t believe him.<\/p>\n “I think he really thought that I was like kind of pulling a fast one. He was just like ‘What is this guy going on about?’ And we chatted a little bit. He’s like, ‘Well, good luck.’ Not much because I think he thought I was crazy,” said Wesley in the interview.<\/p>\n He clarified that Shatner gave him words of support on social media when it was officially announced that he was cast as Kirk.<\/p>\n “Then it’s announced that I got the role and then he tweets me, ‘Take care of my crew and my ship.’ And ‘Congratulations Captain,'” said Wesley.<\/p>\n In an August 2025 interview with CGMagazine<\/a>, Wesley explained why he chose not to “replicate” Shatner’s performance as Kirk, which he described as brilliant.<\/p>\n “I realized quite quickly and with the advice of others that I will never be able to match his intrinsic qualities as a human being,” said Wesley in the interview. “So what I tried to look at some of the qualities that are non-negotiable for the character. And then instill my own version of James T. Kirk that is unique to me.”<\/p>\n The fifth and final season of Star Trek: SNW<\/em> is currently in production.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Actor Paul Wesley took on the iconic role of James T. Kirk for the hit Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As Star Trek fans are well aware, William Shatner, 94, originated the bold, brave captain of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, which ran for three seasons from 1966 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2074133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[374482,343033,319398,24088],"class_list":["post-2074132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-james-t-kirk","tag-paul-wesley","tag-star-trek","tag-william-shatner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\u2018I-Think-He-Thought-I-Was-Crazy.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2074132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074134,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074132\/revisions\/2074134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2074133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Paul Wesley Explained Why He Gave His Own Spin on Captain Kirk for ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’<\/h2>\n