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Although Sebastian Stan’s rise to fame began when he played Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl, it was being cast as Bucky Barnes, the future Winter Soldier, in Captain America: The First Avenger that gave him global recognition. Had history unfolded differently, however, there’s a world where we could have seen Stan play James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise. While I’m content with how things played out for the actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I still would have liked to see how he’d do playing this iconic sci-fi character.
In addition to discussing losing out on playing Green Lantern and confirming that his upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts* went through some major rewrites, Sebastian Stan spent some time during his chat with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused opening up about how he came close to being cast as Kirk in 2009’s Star Trek, the reboot that took place in the alternate Kelvin timeline and was followed by 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. On the subject major roles he lost out on over his career, Stan said the following:
There were a couple of things I didn’t get that I really desperately wanted. But Captain Kirk for J.J. Abrams, that was one of the first I got very close to. I remember I was really, really close, and I remember I had a screen test with [Abrams] at Paramount and my manager had me do a separate photo shoot where I would try and replicate all these William Shatner pictures just to send to him, see how much I looked like him, but I didn’t get it.
Before I go any further, let me say that I have absolutely no problem with Chris Pine’s Kirk performance. He did a good job of channeling the same kind of energy that William Shatner emitted when he was playing the character in Star Trek: The Original Series and the later movies, but he never came off like he was just doing an impression of Shatner. If Star Trek 4 ever gets off the ground, I will gladly welcome Pine getting one more crack at the captain of the USS Enterprise.
Still, I think that Sebastian Stan could have played a great James T. Kirk as well. He also has the right physical look and performative flair that would have served him well playing the cocky rule breaker who becomes one of the most iconic figures in Starfleet history. The only concern I have in this alternate version of history is if Stan would have had time to play both Kirk and Bucky, especially considering how the latter has grow increasingly important in the MCU. If not, then I’m glad things shaken out the way they did.
As already indicated, there have been no recent updates on if Star Trek 4 will move forward. Instead, the Star Trek origins movie is next up on the franchise’s theatrical slate, and is expected to be released sometime on the 2025 movies schedule. However, if you’d like to see someone else playing a younger James T. Kirk, check out Paul Wesley’s performance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. As for Sebastian Stan, you can see him back in action as Bucky Barnes when Thunderbolts* arrives on May 2, 2025.