William Shatner said in 2024 that william shatner approved of the actors who inherited Captain Kirk. Chris Pine and Paul Wesley were both in his praise, with Shatner calling them “wonderful.”
That reaction lands after years of Shatner comments on the role he made famous in Star Trek: The Original Series. It also arrives after the Kelvin Timeline had not been seen on film since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, keeping Pine’s version of Kirk in a narrower lane than Shatner’s original run.
In 2024, Shatner told Screen Rant, “They’re wonderful. I just wish I looked as good as they do, and their ilk, as actors. They’re both wonderful.” That line covered Pine, who played James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot, and Wesley, who portrayed Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The quote matters because Shatner was not softening his view of the part; he was extending it. The original Kirk actor was publicly treating both successors as valid inheritors, not as replacements to be graded against a fixed standard.
In 2009, Pine took on Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ reboot, opening a second screen era for the character. Shatner had already signaled openness to that version in 2012 at Wizard World in New Orleans, where he said Pine was “a lovely young man, who is really talented and looks really good. He’s got the demeanor, the body and the voice. So, along with being a good actor, he’s got all the right equipment.”
By 2014, Shatner had gone further. He told Metro, “I’ve seen the two films J.J. Abrams directed, and I enjoyed them very much.” He added that seeing Pine as Kirk was “like seeing your mortality,” a blunt line that shows how a recast role can become personal for the actor who originated it.
The Kelvin Timeline had not appeared on film since Star Trek Beyond in 2016, which left Pine’s Kirk in a frozen chapter while Wesley kept the character active on television. That split gives Shatner’s 2024 praise extra weight: one actor represents the reboot films, the other a later television extension, and both still earned the same word from the original Kirk.
For viewers who track franchise continuity, the takeaway is simple. Shatner is not guarding the role from his successors; he is endorsing them, and he is doing it in public with no hedging.
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