Summary of eRumor:
Star Trek actor, William Shatner, posted a press clipping on his Facebook profile on March 31, 2013 that said Disney has announced him to play a role of the upcoming Star Wars sequel.
The Truth:
This was an April Fools Joke.
Actor William Shatner has been “wooing” Bad Robot director J.J. Abrams for parts in his upcoming projects, according to a February 22, 2013 article in Huffington Post, but we have found no evidence of this being true.
The release posted on Shatner’s Facebook fan page contained a Fox News link, which did not work and a search of the Fox News and other news sites found no such story.
Shatner later posted on his Facebook fan page that George Takei “announced today that he, too will be in Episode VII! Bad enough I had to put up with that Fisher woman and now Him? You know how HE is…always demanding the best lines and hogging all the camera time! No thank you JJ, I’ll stick to Star Trek! ;-)”
Finally, shortly after 10:30PM on the evening of April 1, the actor confessed to the prank on his profile page saying, “With the end of April 1st drawing near the end of this Star Wars charade must also come to a close. May the Farce Be With You! 😉 MBB” “MBB” is Shatner’s sign off on Twitter and stands for “My Best Bill.”
J.J. Abrams has directed two new Star Trek films, Start Trek (2009) and Star Trek: Into Darkness, which is slated to be released in May 2013. Recently Abrams was announced to direct the new Star Wars films by Disney and Shatner jokingly told reporters at Movie Fanatic that Abrams was a pig for hogging both franchises.
Since the 1970’s Sci Fi fans have continuously argued which series is better, Star Wars or Star Trek and this sort of news may be quite a stunner to fans of both series.
Canadian born Shatner, 82, has played the role of James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise from 1966 to 1994 on television and the big screen. The popular 1960’s science fiction series was created by Gene Roddenberry who conceptualized the series as “Wagon Train to the Stars.”
Throughout Shatner’s career he has had a history of being a bit of a practical jokester. Shatner wrote about some of his pranks during his Star Trek days in his Star Trek Memories autobiography and included a story a famous payback where he once flew all the way to Hawaii sitting next to a very tall alien dummy prop that his fellow cast members had secretly arranged to be his travelling companion. The prank took place during the very early days of Star Trek, before it was a TV sensation and Captain Kirk was recognized by the public.
Star Trek alien dummy that flew to Hawaii with William Shatner
In 2004 the Shatner hosted a reality TV series, Invasion Iowa, where he had the population of Riverside, Iowa tricked into believing that he was directing a science fiction movie in their home town. After the joke was revealed to the community, Shatner presented the town with some lovely gifts. Riverside was also a location for one of the scenes in the first Star Trek film that Abrams directed.
The actor, who is notorious at making fun of himself, was recently featured in an online video promotion of a new Star Trek game, which reenacted a famous battle with an old adversaries, the Gorn.
https://youtu.be/4hnBp7x2QAE
Video found on YouTube
Posted 4/1/2013 Updated 4/2/2013