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Dave Bautista wants to be a Klingon. Make it happen already.
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00:00Star Trek is undeniably one of the greatest and most iconic franchises in the history of fiction,
00:05which over the last 50 plus years has expanded the imaginations of anyone who has ever sat down to watch it.
00:12This includes, of course, Hollywood's own acting elite themselves,
00:15many of who grew up with Trek just as the general public did.
00:18Beyond that, some of Trek's famous fans have even publicly stated their long-held desire to appear in some form of Trek media.
00:26And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, here with 10 actors who want to be in Star Trek.
00:35Kicking things off with perhaps the single most chaotic choice on this list,
00:39we have Nicolas Cage, who, while promoting his new Western film The Old Way,
00:43told Yahoo that he's a card-carrying Trekkie and would love to join the franchise.
00:48When the interviewer mentioned that Pedro Pascal, Cage's co-star in the recent The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,
00:54wanted to recruit Cage to join his Star Wars series The Mandalorian, Cage replied,
00:59I'm not really down. I'm a Trekkie man. I'm on the Star Trek Enterprise. That's where I roll.
01:04I'm not in the Star Wars family. I'm in the Star Trek family.
01:07Cage also expressed a fondness for Trek's history of socio-political messaging
01:11and praised Chris Pine's performance as the rebooted Captain Kirk in the J.J. Abrams-produced movies.
01:17With Paramount still hoping to get a fourth Pine-starring movie before cameras soon,
01:21wouldn't Cage make for one hell of an addition to the cast,
01:24whether as a sage-supporting character or riotous villain?
01:31Rosario Dawson gained a whole new generation of fans when she began playing the live-action
01:35iteration of Star Wars' Ahsoka Tano in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
01:40But in a 2020 interview with Variety, Dawson confessed that her ambitions didn't simply
01:45end with Star Wars and that she'd love to add Trek to her resume too. She said,
01:50The two universes, Star Trek and Star Wars. I get in those two. I'm telling you, man,
01:54that's it. I will just retire. And then I can just concentrate on going to school and running for
01:58office. That would be it. Though Dawson added that she'd happily play a background part as a
02:03Romulan or Vulcan, her own father suggested she play a new version of iconic Trek character Q.
02:08Speaking of the possibilities of playing the dimension-hopping entity, Dawson said,
02:12I mean, it would be great because then I could jump on Discovery. I could be on Picard. I just
02:16want to be with Jean-Luc Picard. Don't we all, Rosario? Don't we all?
02:21Number 8. David Tennant
02:22David Tennant is, of course, best known for playing surely the most beloved modern iteration of Doctor
02:27Who. And during a 2020 Reddit AMA was asked by a fan if there were any major franchises he'd like
02:34to tick off his acting bucket list by appearing in. Tennant succinctly responded that he's eager
02:38to play a part in Star Trek after having some up-close and personal contact with a certain
02:43legendary Trek cast member. He said,
02:45Star Trek would be great. After talking to George Takei for the podcast, I've got a bit immersed in it.
02:50Tennant certainly wouldn't be the first Doctor Who performer to join the Trek franchise,
02:54but he'd undeniably be one of the most high-profile gets-to-date, and per his impressive
02:59versatility as a performer, could evidently slot into a variety of possible roles.
03:04Number 7. Mila Kunis
03:06Mila Kunis has repeatedly stated in interviews that she's absolutely obsessed with Star Trek,
03:11and even went as far as to rank the various Trek series for GQ back in 2011. The Next Generation
03:17came out on top, of course. And in 2015, while speaking to IGN to promote Jupiter Ascending,
03:23Kunis reacted with stunned surprise upon learning that Deanna Troi actress Marina Sirtis wanted her to
03:28play Troi if The Next Generation was ever rebooted. After recovering from the joyous shock of the news,
03:34Kunis replied in the affirmative that she'd love to play a new version of Troi, saying,
03:38I love Deanna Troi. She's awesome. I would totally put in those contact lenses and call it a day.
03:43Big poofy hair, curl, like get a perm. Later in the interview, Kunis admitted that she actually
03:48considered contacting J.J. Abrams to be an extra in one of his Trek movies, though in terms of a larger
03:53role admitted that she'd simply prefer to keep watching as a fan. Even so, a cameo could be fun.
03:59Number 6. Paul Giamatti
04:01Paul Giamatti isn't just one of the greatest actors of his generation, he's one of the greatest
04:06actors, period. As such, he'd be a major credit to any Star Trek production that'd have him,
04:11and as a self-professed sci-fi fan admitted his desire to join the Trek universe when appearing
04:16on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2019. He said,
04:20My dearest wish in the world as a child until this moment is to be a Klingon,
04:24basically, or to be something, but for some reason, those jobs don't come to me.
04:28When Colbert added that Giamatti doesn't evoke a dangerous air, Giamatti replied that he'd gladly
04:33play any role on Star Trek, even one of the silly blue guys, presumably referring to Andorians.
04:40Anybody who's seen Big Fat Liar knows that Giamatti looks the part under blue makeup,
04:44and it goes without saying, he'd absolutely crush the role of a Trek villain of any kind.
04:49Number 5. Katie Sackhoff
04:51Katie Sackhoff is undeniably sci-fi royalty in her own right at this point, having risen
04:56to fame while playing fan-favorite character Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, and since
05:01starred as Star Wars' Bo-Katan in both voiceover and live-action form. And in a 2021 interview with
05:07Looper, Sackhoff confirmed that she might not be stopping at those Titanic sci-fi franchises.
05:12When asked whether she had designs on any other major IP, Sackhoff said,
05:16I mean, I haven't been in Star Trek. That seems to be the one that's still there. That's still there,
05:21and still exists for the possibility. The fact that this hasn't actually happened already is honestly
05:25pretty surprising, and given Sackhoff's continued popularity as a genre icon, it feels like a mere
05:30matter of time before she wins a beefy role on a Trek TV series. Make it happen already, Paramount!
05:36Number 4. Tom Hanks
05:38Tom Hanks would be basically the biggest A-list name Star Trek could ever get, a universally
05:44beloved actor who over more than 40 years has delivered some of the most iconic performances
05:48of all time. And unlike most everybody on this list, Hanks' name was actually in the conversation
05:53for a Star Trek role at one point, even if he sadly didn't know about it. While the filmmakers of
05:58Star Trek First Contact were locking down casting for the vital role of Zephryn Cochran, the first human to
06:04create a warp drive and make contact with the Vulcans, they kicked around the ideas of offering the part to
06:09Hanks. But in a recent interview on a Josh Horowitz Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hanks claimed that he'd
06:14never actually been offered the chance to play Cochran, with the part eventually going to the great
06:18James Cromwell instead. Hanks, a huge Trek fan, responded with clear disappointment about never
06:24learning of the offer, which he would have loved to accept. Hanks said,
06:27The guy who invented warp drive? Oh, come on, I would have jumped on that! I would have come in and brought
06:32GIF tribbles to everyone on the first meeting. I would have done that!
06:35While the potential for Hanks' presence to prove distracting in any Trek media speaks for itself,
06:41could any producer really say no to him if he formally threw his hat in the ring?
06:45Number 3. Mira Savino
06:47You won't get many bigger Star Trek fans in Hollywood than Oscar-winning actress Mira Savino,
06:52whose father, Paul Savino, appeared in The Next Generation's seventh season episode
06:57Homewood, playing Worf's human foster brother Nikolai Rajenko. In a 2018 interview with Sci-Fi,
07:03Savino was asked about her starter passions before becoming an actress and couldn't resist but bring
07:08up Star Trek, saying,
07:09You know what I'm gonna say? I've been on the record before. Original Star Trek. I have the dolls,
07:14I have the phaser, I've got the little toy set which has the transporter that turns around,
07:18I went to conventions as a teenager, I have met most of the original cast, while many of them have now
07:23passed on, sadly. I am the biggest geek for Star Trek ever. And crucially, Savino couldn't help but
07:29advocate for herself appearing on basically any form of Star Trek media in the future, adding,
07:34That's my thing, and if I could ever, hint hint, be in any future iterations…
07:38Well, as of 2023, it hasn't happened yet, but considering how easy it is to picture Savino
07:43playing a dignitary or higher up at Starfleet, it's about time somebody made her dream a reality.
07:49Number 2. Dave Bautista
07:51Dave Bautista will be imminently making his final appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the
07:56upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, after which he'll be retiring from the Drax role and
08:01seeking challenges elsewhere. It's evident that Bautista wishes to be taken seriously as a real
08:06actor rather than a wrestler-turned-actor, and he's certainly made a persuasive case for that since
08:11leaving the wrestling ring. But in the summer of 2021, Bautista added his name to the many who want
08:16to make an appearance in Star Trek. When freelance writer Jay Stobie tweeted that he'd love to see
08:21Bautista in Star Trek one day, the star retorted with his enthusiasm for the idea, saying,
08:26Likewise, I was born to be a Klingon. Just saying.
08:29He's certainly not wrong. It takes no mental effort whatsoever to picture Big Dave as a Klingon,
08:34and so casting him as a Klingon warlord in a future Trek movie basically sells itself. So, let's get on it.
08:401. Daniel Craig Following on from Dave Bautista,
08:44we have his James Bond and Knives Out co-star Daniel Craig, who, in an admittedly relatively
08:50old interview with Airlock Alpha from 2007, confessed a long-held desire to be a part of
08:55Star Trek. Craig said,
08:56"...I would love a stint in the TV show or in a movie. It's been a secret ambition of mine for years."
09:01And given that Craig ended up making a surreptitious cameo as a stormtrooper in
09:05Star Wars The Force Awakens, one suspects his love of major sci-fi franchises hasn't
09:10diminished one bit. It's just a shame that The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams couldn't
09:15have found a way to insert Craig into his trilogy of Trek reboot movies.
09:19Yet, if the long-gestating fourth film does ever go into production,
09:22there will be ample time to correct that mistake, especially with Craig's all-consuming Bond role
09:27now at an end. Whether as a wink-wink cameo or honest-to-God character in his own right,
09:31Craig has the chops to give us a Trek character either smolderingly intense or totally hilarious.
09:37And that concludes our list. If you think we missed someone, then do let us know in the
09:41comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe,
09:45and tap that notification bell so you never miss a Trek Culture video again.
09:48Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and Instagram as well,
09:52and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
09:55I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have a wonderful day,
09:59and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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