Timothy Olyphant is the talk of the town on television once again as people watch Justified: City Primeval. It’s strange to imagine a world where the actor wasn’t the face of the Justified franchise, but that was almost a reality thanks to J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies. Olyphant recently talked about nearly scoring the role of Captain Kirk, but ultimately losing the gig to an up-and-coming actor named Chris Pine.
The actor was a guest on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast and was asked about the time he auditioned for a role in Star Trek. Horowitz assumed that, given the actor’s roles, he was in the running for Kirk right off the bat, but that was not the case. Timothy Olyphant recalled the story during the podcast and how he ended up losing his chance at playing Kirk to Chris Pine:
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. And 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.’ There was, here’s what I’ll tell you, somewhere along the line, they’re like ‘I got a guy.’ I feel like it was one of those things where he might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and 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 is really good.’
There’s about a 13-year age gap between Timothy Olyphant and Chris Pine, and as the actor said, J.J. Abrams wanted someone younger. Ultimately he went with Pine, who went on to become a hot star in Hollywood from that point onward. As for Olyphant, he’s done quite well for himself, and it doesn’t seem like he’s sore about not getting to play Captain Kirk. Personally, though, I would’ve loved to see him as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, and think that would’ve been a great casting had it gone through. That role ended up going to Karl Urban.
Timothy Olyphant ultimately lost out on the Kirk job, but did get a chance to meet Chris Pine later down the line. It turns out he may also be someone who thinks he’s the best “Chris” in Hollywood as he had nothing but positive things to say about the Star Trek actor.
And 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 is a good dude.
As mentioned, Timothy Olyphant is sitting back and watching the response to Justified: City Primeval, and Chris Pine is off doing his own thing as Star Trek 4 still struggles to see the light of day. The movie has faced numerous setbacks, but there’s still optimism that it will happen at some point. Until then, fans continue to twiddle their thumbs and wonder if Paramount will ever take audiences back to the Kelvin timeline for more adventures.
Consider this, though: there could’ve been a reality where it’s 2023, we don’t have Star Trek 4 and Olyphant is not the star of Justified. Thankfully though, he never played the Kelvin timeline’s James Kirk, so we’re only lacking one of those things at the moment! Both actors ultimately ended up where they should’ve been, though I do wonder what it would’ve been like seeing Olyphant’s Kirk on the bridge.
Those looking to revisit J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies can do so with a Paramount+ subscription. You won’t find Timothy Olyphant in it, but maybe there’s still time to get him on board for the next movie, assuming the latest attempt isn’t too far along in development.