Twelve days ago, it was announced that 30-year-old Zachary Quinto will play Spock in the new Star Trek movie. The role was created, of course, by Leonard Nimoy, who was 35 when the series began in 1966 — though he had played the role a couple years earlier, too, in the long-shelved first pilot ‘The Cage‘.
Now, Ain’t It Cool News claims to have the casting breakdowns for some of the movie’s other characters — including their ages:
- James Kirk — looking for an actor aged 23 to 29 — William Shatner was 35 when the series began
- Leonard (Bones) McCoy — looking for an actor aged 28 to 32 — DeForest Kelley was 46 when the series began
- Uhura — looking for an actress aged 25ish — Nichelle Nichols was 33 when the series began
- Sulu — looking for an actor aged 25 to 32 — George Takei was 29 when the series began
- Montgomery (Scotty) Scott — looking for an actor aged 28 to 32 — James Doohan was 46 when the series began
Assuming this information is correct, it would seem to kill those old rumours about 52-year-old Gary Sinise and 39-year-old Daniel Dae Kim being considered for McCoy and Sulu, respectively.
Meanwhile, IGN.com passes on the rumour that Tom Cruise — who has always seemed kind of Vulcan, to me — is being approached for a cameo as Christopher Pike, who was Captain of the Enterprise before Kirk. The role was originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, who may be best known for co-starring with John Wayne in The Searchers (1956) and playing an armpit-hair-free Jesus in King of Kings (1961). Hunter was 38 when he played Pike in ‘The Cage’, and according to the official chronology, that story took place 11 years before Kirk assumed command of the Enterprise; Cruise is 45.
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