Timothy Olyphant Talks About The Great Experience of Losing Out on Captain Kirk Role in J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK

Before Chris Pine was cast in the role of James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, the director was having a hard time landing the right person for the role. At one point, Justified star Timothy Olyphant was up for the role, and in a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor looked back on that and how while he didn’t get the role, it was still a great experience for him!

Olyphant praised Abrams and the audition process even though the director ultimately decided to go with a “younger” actor. He said:

“Here’s what I can tell you about ‘Star Trek’: I went in and auditioned not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with J.J. Abrams and he’s just a lovely, lovely guy. And just a lovely, lovely audition process. Somewhere in there, I was auditioning for Doc, 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.'”

As you know, Karl Urban landed the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy, but at that time Abrams still hadn’t found his Kirk. The actor went on to say:

“I believe it was one of those things where it’s like they might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and [Abrams] 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.'”

Pine is 13 years younger than Olyphant. While I like Pine in the role, I still think Olyphant would have been great in the role. Olyphant went on to talk about meeting Pine after all of this, saying:

“I have since then met Chris Pine and I am a huge fan of him both on and off screen. I love that guy. He’s a good dude. This sounds very show business-y, but I had the honor, we’re going to say honor, to go to the Golden Globes one year…and I spent most of the evening at the bar with Chris Pine. Just 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 went on to add: “Auditioning sucks, and the fact that I remember the audition process fondly says a lot about J.J. Abrams and what a wonderful man that guy is.” Olyphant went on to appear in the Star Wars franchise.

Do you think Olyphant would have made a good Captain Kirk?