The Mandalorian star Timothy Olyphant has revealed why he lost out on a key Star Trek role.
During an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Olyphant opened up about his Star Trek audition with J.J. Abrams.
“Here’s what I can tell you about Star Trek,” he said. “I went in and I auditioned for I think like, not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with J.J. Abrams and he’s just a lovely, lovely guy. And just a lovely audition process.”
It turns out, he was actually auditioning for the role of Dr Leonard McCoy aka “Bones”, the classic Star Trek doctor originally played by DeForest Kelley in Star Trek: The Original Series. Unfortunately, Abrams had already landed on Karl Urban for the role.
“Somewhere in there, I was auditioning for Doc or something, he’s like, ‘I already got a guy for Doc, so I don’t need you for that. But I don’t have a Kirk.’ ”
Olyphant instead auditioned for the iconic role of Captain James T. Kirk, the captain of the starship Enterprise that was made famous by the original star, William Shatner. Ironically, he missed out on the role due to his age.
“I believe it was one of those things where it’s like, he might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger,” said Olyphant. “He was having a hard time finding somebody younger, and somewhere along the line, J.J. called and said, ‘I found a guy, younger, who’s really good.’ ”
That younger actor turned out to be Chris Pine, who went on to star as Kirk in Star Trek, Stark Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. However, Olyphant certainly wasn’t bitter.
“I have since then met Chris Pine and I am a huge fan of him both on and off screen,” he said. “I love that guy. He is a good dude.”
“This sounds very show businessy, but I had the honor, we’re going to say honor, to go to the Golden Globes one year, back when it was cool,” he added. “I spent most of the evening at the bar with Chris Pine. I just really, really adored him. What a good guy. I really like his work. He’s one of those guys who makes it look simple and easy.”
He even had nothing but great things to say about Abrams, despite losing the role. “Auditioning sucks,” he explained. “The fact that I remember the audition process fondly says a lot about J.J. Abrams and what a wonderful man that guy is.”
He may not have boldly gone where no man has gone before, but Olyphant has since headed to the galaxy far, far away as Mandalorian fan favorite, Cob Vanth.
IGN’s Star Trek review gave it 7/10 and said: “Star Trek instantly takes its place among the best of the movies in the franchise, even while embracing the healthier aspects of the series and wholly rejecting much of the dead weight. The film looks bigger and better than any Star Trek ever has.”
Want to read more about Star Trek? Check out how Star Trek is embracing its silly side with the recent musical episode as well as how to watch Star Trek in order.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
