How William Shatner Accidentally Broke A Younger Star Trek Actor’s Heart

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 26 seconds ago

One of the reasons that Star Trek: The Original Series became a breakout sci-fi hit was because of its stellar cast. Who else could make an alien charismatic like Leonard Nimoy, or so perfectly embody the fiery passion of humanity like DeForest Kelly? Of course, the real lynchpin of the show was William Shatner, who instantly transformed Captain Kirk into the most compelling pop culture icon of the 20th century. For decades, it seemed like it would be impossible to replace Shatner, but that didn’t keep Paramount from trying. Chris Pine played this famous captain in Star Trek (2009) and its two sequels, while Paul Wesley currently plays Kirk on Strange New Worlds.

In the Kelvinverse films, Pine’s performance was basically a high-energy imitation of Shatner’s, which was a lot of fun. To Wesley’s credit, he has leaned more into his particular strengths as an actor, giving us a Kirk who is notably more thoughtful and nuanced. By now, Strange New Worlds fans are quite happy with his performance, and most can’t imagine anyone else playing this iconic sci-fi figure. However, one fellow performer might not be so happy. Originally, Sam Kirk actor Dan Jeannotte thought he’d be playing James Kirk. Why is that? In the original show, Sam Kirk was played by William Shatner wearing a fake mustache!

The Other Kirk

When Dan Jeannotte first shows up in Strange New Worlds, it serves as a kind of visual punchline. When we hear reference to a “Mr. Kirk,” audiences naturally expect to see Star Trek legend James T. Kirk. Instead, we discover that it’s his brother, Sam, who is currently stationed on the Enterprise. While this made for a fun tease early in Season 1, and Sam has proven to be a great character in his own right, it didn’t take the writers long to actually bring James Kirk to the show. When this happened, Jeannotte thought that he was going to be the one to play this legendary future captain.

He admitted this recently at a Trek Long Island panel. “They were like, later in the season, Jim Kirk shows up, I’m like, yeah, here we go! And then they’re like… Paul Wesley!” Why, though, did Jeannotte think he had a shot at playing a completely different character? It all goes back to Sam Kirk’s one and only appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series: “Operation, Annihilate!” In this Season 1 finale, he is already dead when the Away Team finds him. Since he was written to be an older brother with no speaking lines, the show saved money by having William Shatner (complete with bad makeup and mustache) play the role.

The Man, The Myth, The Mustache

Therefore, Dan Jeannotte’s confusion is a bit more understandable. Canonically, the George Kirk of TOS looked enough like his younger brother to be played by the same actor, so it’s not that crazy to think the James Kirk of SNW would just look like Sam without the mustache. However, Paramount wisely decided that this would be way too silly for their prestige sci-fi show and cast Wesley in that role instead. Jeannotte ultimately took the casting in stride, telling the Trek Long Island audience that “Paul has a lot to live up to…and a lot of expectations to manage.” As for himself? “All I had to do was be better than a corpse.”

Still, I kind of want to visit the alternate timeline where Jeannotte played both Kirks, ideally with a Henry Cavill-style mustache CGI’ed on Sam. How wonderfully silly would that make all of their interactions? Speaking of mustaches, here’s a fun fact: Leonard Nimoy protested a Season 1 plot point about someone putting a mustache on Spock because he wanted to protect that character’s dignity. At the end of that same season, Shatner didn’t hesitate to wear a fake mustache to play a non-James Kirk role for the first and last time. Why did he do that?

Simple: anything to get more screen time, baby!