A new rumor details that CBS All Access is moving forward with a Star Trek: Enterprise series and is looking to cast James T. Kirk.
The rumor comes from Emre Kaya at The Cinema Spot who claims, “CBS All Access is currently in the process of casting James T. Kirk on their upcoming Star Trek: Discovery spin-off series centered around Captain Pike, titled Star Trek: Enterprise.”
As for who they might be looking at casting in the role, Kaya claims they are “very keen on casting Jake Cannavale.” Not only are they apparently keen on Cannavale, but he reportedly “held a screentest with Star Trek: Discovery Spock actor Ethan Peck, through Skype.”
Cannavale most recently played Toro Calican in The Mandalorian. He also played Charlie Cruz in Nurse Jackie.
This rumor follows one in March from Giant Freakin Robot that an Enterprise series was in the pipeline at CBS.
Related: Rumor: Captain Pike Star Trek Series In The Pipeline At CBS
They reported the series “will follow Captain Christopher Pike and his crew as they take the Enterprise out on a new five-year mission to explore strange new worlds.”
A previous rumor from 4Chan indicated that a Pike series and a Starfleet Academy series were going to be announced at San Diego Comic Con later this year.
More 4chan leaks for Star Trek. If any of them are true they don’t exactly fill me with confidence. pic.twitter.com/UQytci0SAy
— Angry Mr Flibble (@AngryMrFlibble) January 30, 2020
CBS has not officially announced a Captain Pike series.
However, ViacomCBS President and CEO Bob Bakish did detail CBS’ plans for the future of Star Trek back in February. He noted they had two additional series in development aside from Discovery and Picard. One of those series was in production at CBS All Access with the other in production at Nickelodeon.
Bakish also noted they had two other additional series in development as well as a new Star Trek film and a number of Picard novels.
“Building on Discovery & Picard, we now have 2 addtl series in production at @CBSAllAccess & @Nickelodeon, & 2 more series in development; plus, a series of Picard novels being rolled out at @simonschuster, & a highly anticipated new #StarTrek film at @ParamountPics.” – BB $VIAC
— ViacomCBS (@ViacomCBS) February 20, 2020
Related: Alex Kurtzman Reveals 5 Year Plan for Star Trek Franchise
CBS had previously announced they were developing a Section 31 series that would spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery and would star Michelle Yeoh. Back in June 2019, Star Trek head honcho Alex Kurtzman detailed they had plans to begin shooting Section 31 as soon as they were done with Discovery.
He stated, “Erika [Lippoldt] and Boey [Kim], who are two of our writers on ‘Discovery,’ are breaking story on [‘Section 31’] right now, and the plan is to shoot that the second we’re done with [‘Discovery’] Season 3.”
The other series are more than likely Star Trek: Lower Decks and an untitled Nickelodeon animated series that is being developed by the Hageman brothers.
That leaves only one other series really still a mystery. Speculation has pointed to an Enterprise series given Anson Mount’s Captain Pike was well received on Discovery.
Kurtzman did leave the door open for a way to bring the Enterprise back. He stated, “The the idea of bringing Ethan [Peck] back, and Anson [Mount] and Rebecca [Romijn] and the Enterprise, I mean, we loved it so much, and to find a way to do that is definitely something we’re thinking about.”
What might throw an interesting kink in this rumor is that Kurtzman previously stated he was not interested in doing Star Trek with another male captain and in fact made that a condition of his involvement with Star Trek.
Kurtzman stated back in December, “About three years ago when, when CBS asked me to consider doing another Star Trek, my first instinct was: it’s got to be a woman and it’s got to be a woman of color. I’m not interested in having another male captain.”
He then stated, “We made that very clear and a condition of our involvement and Julie was immediately supportive of it.”
What do you make of this rumor? Are you interested in seeing an Enterprise series? What about Jake Cannavale possibly playing Kirk?