Timothy Olyphant Says He Was Rejected as Captain Kirk in the ‘Star Trek’ Films Because “They Wanted Somebody Younger”

Timothy Olyphant will be forever linked to his role as Raylan Givens in Justified, but for a moment there, he could have played one of the most iconic characters of all time, Captain Kirk, if it weren’t for his age.

Speaking to interviewer Josh Horowitz on the Aug. 10 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Olyphant recalled auditioning for J.J. Abrams to nab a role in the director’s Star Trek reboot.

“Here’s what I can tell you about Star Trek,” Olyphant recalled to Horowitz. “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. 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.’”

He continued, “I believe it was one of those things where it’s like, they might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and [Abrams] was having a hard time finding somebody younger. And somewhere along the line, J.J. called and said, ‘I found a guy, younger, who’s really good.’”

That guy was Chris Pine, who would go on to star in Star Trek, which was released in 2009, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. Despite missing out on the films, Olyphant would get the role in Justified within a year of the release of the first Star Trek film, and bears no ill will toward Abrams or Pine.

“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’s a good dude,” he said. He then added, “Auditioning sucks, and the fact that I remember the audition process fondly says a lot about J.J. Abrams and what a wonderful man that guy is.”

Olyphant is currently starring in Justified: City Primeval, which airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX and streams on Hulu.