Paul Wesley Cast as James T. Kirk on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
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Former Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley has been cast in the iconic role of James T. Kirk on Paramount+’s upcoming new Star Trek series Strange New Worlds. Kirk was originally played by William Shatner and Christopher Pine in the JJ Abrama cinematic reboot or “Kelvin” timeline.
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In an unusual move, the second-season casting is being announced before the first season has debuted. “Paul is an accomplished actor, an astonishing presence and a welcome key addition to the show,” said executive producer Alex Kurtzman and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers in a statement. “Like all of us, he is a life-long Star Trek fan and we are excited by his interpretation of this iconic role.”
Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) as he leads the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show is billed as a return to the classic planet-of-the-week space exploration format of The Original Series. It also stars Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.
The series is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, which introduced these new iterations of Pike, Number One and Spock during its second season.
While Pike is the ship’s captain, and Kirk will eventually be the ship’s captain, Mount will continue as a series regular on the program in season two.
Previously, Goldsman confirmed that one of the CBS Studios series’ new castmembers has a link to the show’s most iconic villain, the infamous Khan Noonien-Singh. Actress Christina Chong was announced as playing a series regular named La’an Noonien-Singh in the show. Goldsman hinted that Khan might eventually appear on the show, but not in its debut season.
Strange New Worlds launches May 5 on Paramount+.
