Nicolas Cage can certainly never be accused of not being interested in many varied projects — but he is definitive about one thing. He has no interest in lightsabers, only phasers.
Fresh off revealing the progress of Face/Off 2 during an interview with Collider, the actor — currently promoting his new film The Old Way, and beginning the hype for his next film, Renfield, was asked if he had any interest in joining the ever-expanding Star Wars saga while chatting with Kevin Polowy. Surprisingly, Cage was very direct with his response, stating that he had no interest in a galaxy far, far away — but he'd love to take a trip to the final frontier aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
"No is the answer. I'm not really down. I'm a Trekkie, man, I'm on the Enterprise. That's where I roll. I grew up watching William Shatner, I thought Chris Pine was terrific in the movies. I think the movies are outstanding. I like the political, the sociological -- to me, what science fiction is really all about and why it's such an important genre is that is really where you can really say whatever you want, however you feel, you put it on a different planet, you put it in a different time or in the future and you can – without people just jumping on you. You can really express your thoughts like Orwell in the science fiction format and Star Trek really embraced that. I thought they got into some serious stuff. I'm not in the Star Wars family, I'm in the Star Trek family."
There would absolutely be room to accommodate Cage should the long-gestating Star Trek 4 proceed. Paramount has been developing the film as a continuation of the rebooted series started by J.J. Abrams back in 2008, although numerous behind-the-scenes shuffling, and cast negotiations have held up the project. The film's originally had a screenplay from J.D Payne & Patrick McKay — the minds behind The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — which saw Captain Kirk (Pine) reunited with his father George (Chris Hemsworth), who died just prior to Kirk's birth in Abrams' Star Trek.
"I would love to tell you about it," McKay recently said during an interview with Esquire. "We worked on a couple of Star Trek movies. The one you're asking about would have been the fourth in the franchise, reuniting Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine. The conceit was that through a cosmic quirk in the Star Trek world, they were the same age. It was going to be a grand father-son space adventure—think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in space. We were really thrilled about it."
Cage's quirky comedic style would also fit right in on the irreverent animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. Casting Cage in this world, given his passion for it, seems like a no-brainer. Make it so.
The Old Way is currently playing in theaters now. Check out the trailer below and stay tuned for our full interview with Cage next week: