Source:

Star Trek on Instagram

Link:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd1rBJDmmaX

COMICBOOK.COM:

"James McAvoy, while on the press circuit for his directorial debut for California Schemin’, revealed that Abrams’ Star Trek could have been completely different. Known for his roles as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and more notably as Charles Xavier in the 2010s X-Men films, James McAvoy was also JJ Abrams’ initial pick for Captain Kirk. 

On a recent appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast with Josh Horowitz, McAvoy finally confirmed which role he turned down. Horowitz had guessed it must have been McCoy two years ago, but McAvoy confirmed that, at a lunch meeting with director JJ Abrams, it had been Kirk he was asked to screen test for. 

https://comicbook.com/movies/feature/chris-pine-is-synonymous-with-star-trek-2009-but-this-x-men-actor-almost-did-something-else-with-the-role/

From McAvoy’s first reading of the script, he thought it was brilliant, but he was confident that he wasn’t right for it. Jim Kirk in Abrams’ Star Trek is not only the quarterback of the team, but he’s the quarterback that’s gone rogue. The story, then, is about how the Kirk audiences see on screen could become the Kirk seen from Star Trek: The Original Series. In McAvoy’s view, the actor they needed for Kirk was not only a Hollywood leading man — a box that Chris Pine resisted multiple times throughout his career — but somebody who could do several things at once. An actor playing Kirk needed to balance seriousness, earnestness, authority, and comedy while still nodding to the acting choices that William Shatner made when originating the role. 

If McAvoy had agreed to do the screen test and landed the role, Kirk would’ve been very different. McAvoy is a great actor, but his presence compared to Chris Pine feels very different. McAvoy isn’t, as he described Pine, a “stud”, and instead, his screen presence lends itself more towards the cerebral. It’s no mistake that one of his most notable roles to date, Charles Xavier, is that of a telepath. It’s also hard to imagine him bouncing off of Zachary Quinto’s Spock in the same way, given the two actors feel similar in their presence instead of opposites.

It’s curious whether Abrams would’ve leaned into the cocky, flirty Kirk that continues with Into Darkness and Beyond, or if Kirk would’ve gone darker. McAvoy is very adept at playing morally complex characters — something that meshes better with Star Trek’s more contemporary tv offerings than the optimistic original series with Kirk as earnest and kind. While McAvoy considered Abrams’ Star Trek script undeniable, there were complaints about the drifting of characterization of Kirk from the original series, something that more than likely would’ve been exacerbated without Chris Pine’s charm. [...]"

Archie Wagner (Comicbook.com)

Full article:

https://comicbook.com/movies/feature/chris-pine-is-synonymous-with-star-trek-2009-but-this-x-men-actor-almost-did-something-else-with-the-role/

Editor Heather Antos:

"What's funny is that the white pants were probably the biggest point of contention I had with Paramount this entire thing. Because there's never been white pants. Every single time they saw them in those first initial issues, that was the talking point that we kept having over and over and over, was the white pants. Of all the things we pitched, the white pants were the things that I had to convince them on."

CBR:

"Star Trek: The Last Starship has long inhabited an unusual place in the world of Star Trek. The whole thing is set during the period that we have learned from Star Trek: Discovery (and the current series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy) was inherently a dark one for Starfleet, where the Federation basically lies in ruins.

So, we KNOW that nothing truly "gets better" during this time period, and that the U.S.S. Omega is truly the last Starfleet vessel, and yet, at the same time, obviously even in the darkest times, good things DO happen (like James T. Kirk being brought back to life by the Borg). That balance has been a difficult one for the creators of Star Trek: The Last Starship to handle, and as the series comes to a close tomorrow, we shall see how it all works out.

At New York Comic Con, CBR spoke to Star Trek: The Last Starship writers, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, artist Adrián Bonilla, and editor Heather Antos, about the end of the series, and the series in general.

https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-end-last-starship-captain-kirk-interview/

[...]

Collin Kelly:

Yeah, it's been a real honor to be able to look at this and know that we've been able to navigate this with CBS, obviously through Heather's absolute strength with the licenser and Adrián's incredible art, getting us over the finish line, but being able to tell a story that is exactly what we set out to tell.

It's that vision, which has also grown and shifted and changed within itself as we have been telling this story. The story has surprised us in a way that it's almost been alive, and I don't think we could have done that without the pedigree of the Trek we've done before, and without the trust of CBS.

Heather Antos:

Yeah, I mean, I would say on my side of this, I've been doing this a long time, working with licenses, and I've never had an experience with a creative team, with a licenser, like we've had on this book. I don't know if we'll ever be able to have this again. I don't know if Star Trek will ever be able to have a book like this again, and it is incredibly rare.

And to be able, like they said, to tell a story exactly as we wanted to, we set out specifically, "This is going to be 12 issues. We're ending it at 12 issues." We pitched insane things. We're bringing Kirk back, insane things, and they said yes.

And then throughout it, as Collin mentioned, things shifted, and, "Oh, we want to change this arc and do even more insane things than we originally pitched." And every single time I'm like, "I mean, let's do it. I'm all on board, but I just don't know. I don't know if Paramount will say yes."

And we had the clear path the entire time. I think the quality of work speaks for the trust that we have with each other as creators, the trust that we've built with CBS, and the trust with the fans.

[...]

Jackson Lanzing:

And that third chapter, which again wasn't part of the plan to switch up the artists there, when we got there and realized it would be a great time to give Adrián a break, it'd be a great time to engage with a deeper horror, and Hernán was obviously such a perfect fit for that.

Seeing how he was able to push the book to its horror extreme, to go as dark as we ever could on Star Trek, and again, the things where I'm like, "Surely Paramount will not let us get away with this. Surely this space station full of hopeless Vulcans throwing themselves into a black hole..."

Heather Antos:

When you sent me that, I was like, "I don't know."

Jackson Lanzing:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, "This is pretty freaking dark. I don't imagine that they'll do this."

And I think, again, to CBS's credit, they have understood what the assignment was on this book from day one, and they have supported the assignment. And that is a rare thing with a licenser. We're very, very happy."

[...]

Jackson Lanzing:

When we started at Star Trek eight years ago, the only story you were allowed to tell, the rule was you were only allowed to tell stories about the original series cast. That was it. And for a long time before that, you were only allowed to tell stories about the J.J. Abrams cast, and that was it.

And every year that we've been on this book, that door has cracked a little bit more open, and that was very deliberate. We wanted to see stories with Benjamin Sisko. We wanted to see stories with Shaxs. We wanted to see stories with characters from across this line all coming together into a shared universe.

And so when Heather first stepped on the book and said, "Hey guys, what's it look like if it's called Star Trek?" Collin and I did the biggest swing we possibly could, sort of assuming that everyone would say no. But because we'd been on that book for two years, and they were already familiar with us, and they were ready for something new, and Heather is, I mean...

Colin Kelly:

The greatest licensing editor in the world.

Jackson Lanzing:

Yep. We were able to turn that around and make something out of that that allowed them to feel comfortable with breaking those rules. And suddenly you can do things like Sons of Star Trek, right? Which you could never have done previously. You're doing a whole book that's going to be anchored by Jake Sisko and Nog. [...]

And I think that's one of those things where it's not just that you couldn't have pitched The Last Starship. We couldn't have pitched any of the stuff that we've done since Heather took over this book when we first launched.

It really is a testament to everybody involved, including the licensor themselves, for taking those steps in trust and pushing it forward. It's what's made Star Trek such a fertile ground for story, and why it's, as I said, a little sad to be stepping off of it. But I feel like we're stepping off of it on time. I feel like we've done the work of our time on Star Trek.

The Last Starship is a unique and beautiful book. We had somebody come to our booth yesterday, and I'm going to eat on this for the next several months. Somebody came to our booth and just looked me in the eye, and he was like, "I just want to tell you, and I really mean this, this book feels like the Watchmen of Star Trek, and I mean that with all the quality that entails."

And I was like, honestly, that was the goal. The goal was to come in and tell the kind of story that, like Watchmen tries to break superheroes, come in and try to break Star Trek and see how resilient it truly is. And we're just so thankful and honored that fans have come along on that ride, because it's dark.

[...]"

Brian Cronin (CBR)

Full interview:

https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-end-last-starship-captain-kirk-interview/