It has already been reported that the new Star Trek movie will feature a young/adolescent Spock in addition to the two adult Spocks (Quinto and Nimoy). But it appears the movie will also feature a young James T. Kirk, as well as a young version of his older brother. TrekMovie.com has learned that George Samuel Kirk, Jr. will be played by 15-year-old actor Spencer Daniels, while ComingSoon.net is reporting that the younger James T. Kirk will be played by (almost) 12 year-old actor Jimmy Bennett.
Daniels (George Kirk) recently completed filming on another Paramount film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which he plays a young version of the title character. He has also appeared on such shows as Cold Case, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office. Bennett (Young Jim Kirk) is known for voicing the character of Roo in various Winnie the Pooh productions. He has appeared in such films as Daddy Day Care, Hostage, The Amityville Horror (with his Star Trek co-star Rachel Nichols), Poseidon, and Evan Almighty.
Jimmy Bennett (young James Kirk) and Spencer Daniels (young George Kirk, Jr.)
MINOR SPOILERS:
“Kirk Begins” (and “Spock Begins” too)
TrekMovie.com has learned that the adolescent Kirk boys have a scene together but apparently not with their parents (George Kirk, Sr. played by Chris Hemsworth and Winona Kirk played by Jennifer Morrison). We already know that Winona Kirk appears pregnant during the film and that we will also see Kirk at Starfleet Academy and points beyond (played by Chris Pine), so the film will show various points in the life of Kirk (as well as Spock).
TrekMovie.com has been reporting for a while that the film will “jump” from one time period to another, and this latest report is further evidence of that. This is somewhat the same approach as seen in another franchise re-invigoration, Batman Begins. And of course Abrams and his team from Lost and Alias are big fans of non-linear storytelling with lots of flash-backs and forwards. Abrams even started off his first feature film, Mission Impossible III (also written by Orci & Kurtzman), with a ‘flash forward.’
George Kirk (whom only Jim called Sam) was first referenced in the TOS episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and his corpse (“played” by William Shatner) later appeared in “Operation — Annihilate!”. See Memory Alpha for more on George Kirk.
Shatner as dead George Kirk Jr. — nice stache!
More on Daniels:
Official site | IMDb
First!
First! Anyway, interesting, I hope it does not get confusing for casual watchers.
Nice, but where’s Mugatu??? :)
First. Plus, the pic is busted. But interesting to see that both boys will be in the story…
All this jumping around from one time period to another and showing characters at different parts of their life sounds very icky.
Keeps Conventions alive :)
5
I agree it’s not something we’re used to seeing in Trek, and especially the Trek movies. But it IS one of Abrams’ trademark moves, and usually it’s been pretty effective.
Personally I think jumping back to Kirk and Spock as teenagers would be good enough though. I don’t know that I’ve EVER been curious to see the two of them as little kids. LOL
I wonder if we will see Finnigan from STTOS episode shore leave, he was always playing practical jokes on kirk at the academy?
Any guesses, but the way characters keep popping up, I wouldnt be suprised.
I hope he makes an appearance. :-) in the new movie.
I’m sorry, but since we never saw Jim Kirk at a younger age in the series, he could never have existed. Canon, remember. If we didn’t see it in the aired show, it never existed before.
According to some, that is….
#5 – Stanky
If you’ve ever watched “Lost,” you’ll know that Abrams & Co. know how to do flashbacks and do them well. No worries here. Actually looking forward to seeing them mix it up a bit, given the mind-numbing, playing-it-safe sameness of the Berman years.
7 I imagine it starting off with sequences of them as kids, then to teenage Kirk’s life.
It may be that the older Spock has to go to multiple times and meet with a younger Kirk to stop him from being killed.
As Kirk gets older, he runs into this mysterious older Vulcan (Spock), and eventually this leads to the Original Series timeframe.
It may also be that Spock’s younger self is targetted by Nero.
At that point, the mystery could be solved with a final confrontation with Nero in some way.
In the process, we may see the origins of what defines Kirk and Spock, and eventually the “birth” of the Original Series and crew on the Enterprise.
This film very much looks like an Origin story to me, and the scenario above illustrate a mere inkling of the story possibilities.
I love you guys. Our bickering is amazing but out contribution to the world is even better. Thanks for giving me a place to hang out trekmovie.com
I hope this isn’t turning into a Star Wars Episode 1 c’mon
we dont need to see baby kirk comin out of his mother who cares what he was like as a kid??
re#5
“All this jumping around from one time period to another and showing characters at different parts of their life sounds very icky”
WHAT? It sounds AWESOME to me!
C’mon, Stankster, get with it and don’t always look on the “icky” side of life! This movie [and this site] are a wonderful reason to wake up every day!
TREK LIVES! …and we should all be glad that so much care, thought, and respect is going into this production!
…and btw, I thought you were above the “1st” thing.. ; )
The more that I hear the more excited about this movie I get…it’s about time that we saw Kirk and Spock’s early days before their adventures aboard the Enterprise. It appears that the filmmakers are staying relatively close to cannon but somewhat blurring the edges. Still as long as the charaterizations and story is great, IMHO it will be a success…
Funny as heck if George at 15 talks about growing a mustache…
OK, so now we know the entire cast except for the key role of blurry starfleet cadet #43.
I hope this movie does not get lost in the detail of exposition.
Still looking forward to it either way….
Capes
i dont wanna see kirk as a kid. i wanna seeing kirk drop-kicking a klingon’s ass!!
Now why did they cast another boy for George Kirk? Jimmy Bennett could have played him, too … with a moustache!
Settle down: this is just about who is going to play a teenage Kirk, not about bringing him back to life.
Sounds like this film is going to explore in depths what made these two iconic men who they were during the Five-Year Mission.
Cute kids. Who’s playing the kid Spock tho?
9. diabolk – January 29, 2008
I’m sorry, but since we never saw Jim Kirk at a younger age in the series, he could never have existed.
That really made me shake my head. You mean Kirk must have come out of the womb as a grown man? Man, that would have really hurt his mom. Ouch! Just because we have not seen it on screen, does not mean it violates cannon. Cannon violation is anything that contradicts what we have seen on screen.
It would be a nice touch is they used a little bit of ominous foreshadowing to let the audience know that Little George isn’t gonna live long enough to see his retirement.
Smacked in the back by flying, plastic vomit…
I’d also like to see Little Jimmy give Little Georgie a patented flying Shatner kick in the Kirk family backyard…
I like the flash back idea, and the possibly seeing what made Kirk and Spock what they were later on. Groovy!
I’d also am curios to see the young Spock actor.
#23 –
I think Diabolk was kidding…
Wonder if it’s going to be Riverside, Iowa….. because if that isn’t shown as Kirk’s birthplace, Abrams will have to deal with something far worse then TOS canon nazis (yee gods, the viewscreen is .004 meters too long in diameter! Blasphemy!), who would be pissed even though nothing was ever said on screen about Kirk’s birthplace beyond “Iowa”…
he’d have to deal with the residents of Riverside, Iowa… who’s economy essentially consists of two things: farming, and selling “Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk” t-shirts.
Are they going to be able to fit all this in a two long movie????
#28 –
If Abrams, Orci & Kurtzman are going out of their way to canonize certain elements of the Animated Series and the TREK novels, there’s no reason to think they WON’T pin down Riverside in TREK XI. I think it’s a safe bet!
I wonder if JJ is going to show a flashback scene of Taurus IV where Kirk was only 1 of 9 survivors who saw Kodos?
re: 10 SPB
I have seen a couple episodes of Lost and that was way too many.
re: 14 C Redshirt
Nothing to be ‘above’ with the “First.” I like when people write “first.” I don’t like when people spend a bunch of time complaining about people writing “first” when it is such a trivial thing.
and I stand by the “icky”
#14. Commodore Redshirt – January 29, 2008
“we should all be glad that so much care, thought, and respect is going into this production”
Well. At least it looks like care, thought and respect are going into the script. I personally can’t say the same for the designers…
#5 Stanky
Posting w/o reading ahead:
Sounds very “Lost”-y to me, which I don’t mind so much now that I’m used to the technique as JJ uses it . It bugged me when I first started watching it, but it became pretty obvious when there’s a flashback on “Lost,” everybody’s back in civilization. The flashbacks are also critical to what’s going on on the Island (it’s a character too.)
And given the popularity of “Lost,” (which, given its delayed premiere, may be in doubt) I really don’t think the average viewer is going to find Trek XI a terribly difficult moviegoing experience.
Peace. Live long and prosper.
#9
Damn right! Kirk sprang to life fully formed from the forehead of Gene Roddenberry! ;-)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
@29 I agree. I have no problem with nonlinear storytelling but with the cast size – a two hour movie just doesn’t seem long enough to contain all these folks.
Many of them are going to end up being nothing more than cameos the way things seem to be panning out so far.
Tarsus IV?
Spencer Daniels looks a little like Hemsworth if you ask me :)
#34 edited to read
(it’s a character too, just like Big E.)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#37 Yes from “Conscience of a king” season 2 Kirk meets up with Kodos who poses as an actor and Kodo’s daughter?
I’m sensing thread-drift here.
Anthony has very kindly provided us with a chat thread for just such thread drifts/off-topic discussions. If we happen to get “Lost” in this thread, the discussion can move there. It’s the last folder at the top of the page. :)
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
Spencer Daniels kinda reminds me of Kurt Russell when he was a kid.
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
#13
Totally. Beware the Phantom Menace.
#23.. yes, my phrase “according to some” should have been the tipoff. Some here bicker about anything new that wasn’t seen or mentioned in the show, that it can’t be canon. I was riffing on that silly attitude.
Well I think it will be cool if JJ at least broach the subject when Kirk was 13 yrs old and he witnessed the massacre on Tarsus IV. I think that event in his life might have had a huge influence on Kirk to join star fleet.
I’m trying to picture the lad in one of Shatner’s toupes. :D
#16 – Hahahahahaha! That’ll be awesome if he talks about it. A true nod to the fans. ;)
Hmmm…
We have Jimmy Bennett playing a young Kirk…
We have Chris Pine playing story aged Kirk…
We have James Cawley, who played Kirk in another production…
… but we don’t have William Shatner playing Kirk at any time.
Fascnating.
George looks more like Jim to me. Sure they are the right way round?
Some of you seem concerned that with so many different characters being introduced on screen, there will hardly be time to squeeze it all in to a two hour movie.
Don’t worry….it ends up that the reason none of us can guess the storyline to the movie is because there ISN’T ONE! It’s going to be a one hour and forty-three minute extravaganza with the characters skating around, like Chimps On Ice, each taking a turn swooshing up to the camera, smiling, and introducing themselves….e.g. “hi, I’m Finnegan!”
Come early December J.J. will start marketing the hell out of the flick, with a last minute title change to TREKSCAPADES!!
Hell, why did you think they were filming in Iceland all these months? Duh! :)