You can’t have missed the current (or, at least, reheated) craze going around on social media that involves gender-swapping photos of yourself or celebrities via photo-editing apps. The craze has even reached the depths of space with Star Trek icon William Shatner sharing a gender-flipped pic of himself as James T. Kirk on The Original Series. And he had the perfect reaction to it.
As you can see in the tweet below, Shatner is pretty attracted to his alternate female self. Which is brilliantly in-character for the Kirk actor. Because you know that if Kirk ever actually encountered a female doppelganger from some other dimension then the two Kirks would absolutely end up sleeping together. And when I say end up, I mean within five minutes of meeting each other.
😳🤔 I’d do me! 😝😘 pic.twitter.com/HjVOdnqXIm
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) June 16, 2020
Across Trek history so far, we’ve met evil Kirk from the mirror universe and Chris Pine’s Kirk from the Kelvin timeline, but we’ve yet to encounter a female Kirk. However, the next iteration of the character may reimagine him to some extent. It’s recently been reported that when Kirk appears on the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, he could be depicted as bisexual. This isn’t something that’s ever been established before now, but it wouldn’t really break continuity as it’s a fair extrapolation of the way he’s always been portrayed.
As for whether we could see Shatner himself in the franchise again, he seems to think its unlikely, which is a good point considering Kirk died back in 1995’s Star Trek: Generations. He would consider reprising the role, though, provided that it wasn’t for a gratuitous cameo and was well-conceived. Voyager‘s Kate Mulgrew has pitched a triple Captain team-up between Janeway, Picard and Kirk, but it remains to be seen whether Shatner or Patrick Stewart like the idea.
The next Star Trek show to hit the airwaves will likely be Discovery season 3, coming to CBS All Access later this year.