Star Trek has found great success in recasting many of its iconic characters with different actors. Due to real-world issues such as actor availability, contract negotiations, and advanced age, various characters have been recast across the various Star Trek movies and TV shows. For example, a salary dispute led to Kirstie Alley's Saavik from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan being recast with Robin Curtis for Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Other supporting or minor characters had been recast, such as casting James Cromwell to play the Star Trek: The Original Series character Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact.
It wasn't until J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek movie, however, that the franchise proved it was possible to recast the original crew from Star Trek: The Original Series, which seemed previously blasphemous to longtime Trekkers. The poor reception to Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 led Paramount to seek a bold new direction by rebooting the universe and recasting the entire TOS Enterprise crew. This quickly set a precedent that has led to further hugely successful recasts in both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Here are the major Star Trek characters who have been played by multiple actors across the franchise's history.
8 Captain Christopher Pike
Christopher Pike, the first Captain of the USS Enterprise in Gene Roddenberry's original unaired Star Trek pilot could have faded into obscurity when actor Jeffrey Hunter decided not to return for the second pilot. However, backstage issues led to the footage being used for the two-part episode "The Menagerie", in which Spock (Leonard Nimoy) kidnapped his former superior officer on a mission of mercy. The role of the severely injured Fleet Captain Christopher Pike was played by Sean Kenney, while the footage of Hunter as Pike was played during the episode's court-martial scenes, explaining Spock's actions.
Over 40 years later, in the first Abrams movie, the Kelvin Timeline's Christopher Pike was played by Bruce Greenwood. In the Kelvin Timeline, Pike is a mentor and father figure to a young James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) instead of Spock (Zachary Quinto). However, Star Trek: Discovery season 2 re-established the close relationship between Pike (Anson Mount) and Spock (Ethan Peck). Captain Pike's determination to save Spock in Discovery foreshadowed the "Menagerie" rescue mission that would happen later in Spock's Star Trek timeline. Anson Mount continues to play Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and has quickly become the definitive Christopher Pike.
7 Captain James T. Kirk
William Shatner is still the definitive Captain Kirk in Star Trek, but the character has been recast twice for both the Abrams movies and Strange New Worlds. Chris Pine portrayed a younger, more impulsive Kirk than the confident version played by Shatner in TOS. The arc of the Kelvin Timeline movies is Kirk's need to fill the absence left by his father, George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), so while Pine nails many of Kirk's mannerisms, it's a much different tempo to the version immortalized by Shatner.
Paul Wesley was introduced as Kirk in the Strange New Worlds season 1 finale, and, due to the alternate timeline created by Pike, was again different from the Shatner version. However, there's enough of the Kirk that audiences know in Wesley's alternate version to convince Pike that he needs him aboard the Enterprise. There will be more from Paul Wesley as a younger Lt. Kirk in Strange New Worlds season 2, and it will be fascinating to see how performance develops. Honorable mentions should also go to both Jimmy Bennett as the young Kirk in Star Trek (2009) and Sandra Smith, who played Kirk when he was trapped in the body of Janice Lester.
6 Spock
Remarkably, there have been 11 actors to play Spock. The most notable of these performances are Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, and Ethan Peck. Leonard Nimoy was the only actor who featured in both the rejected Star Trek pilot and the successful second pilot episode with his character intact. Spock's place in Star Trek canon is an integral one as Nimoy was a creative force behind the TOS movies, and he handed the torch on to his successor Zachary Quinto and the Kelvin Timeline cast in Star Trek 2009.
Quinto's Spock was a version who struggled to suppress his emotions. This, combined with a poorly judged romance between Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana), made him considerably different from the Nimoy performance. Ethan Peck's Spock in Strange New Worlds, on the other hand, manages to combine both the more human aspects of the Quinto Spock with the emotional suppression of the Nimoy Spock to great success. The writers of SNW have clearly identified Spock's internal human/Vulcan conflict as strong dramatic material, and Peck continues to prove himself to be worthy of the iconic role.
5 Number One
Reportedly, when the network rejected the first Star Trek pilot, they also rejected Majel Barrett as Number One. This forced the Star Trek writers to create a different character for Gene Roddenberry's wife. That character was Nurse Christine Chapel, who would also go on to be played by multiple actors. NBC executives simply did not believe that television audiences at the time would accept Number One, the female First Officer of a Federation starship. Number One essentially vanished from Star Trek for over 56 years.
Thankfully, Number One has been given a second lease on life in Strange New Worlds, after being reintroduced in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. Played by Rebecca Romijn, Number One finally has a name - Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley - and she is at the center of a Starfleet augment scandal that will factor into SNW season 2. Romijn's performance brilliantly responds to the 60s network executives in the episode "Spock Amok", in which Una and Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) attempt to prove that they're not cold and unapproachable and can actually have fun.
4 Nyota Uhura
Despite lacking in Star Trek storylines, Nichelle Nichols would go on to inspire astronauts and actors like Whoopi Goldberg purely because of her position on the bridge of the Enterprise. Sadly, the lack of strong Uhura stories hampered Zoe Saldana as Uhura in the Abrams movies, which felt the most interesting use of her character was to make her Spock's love interest. At last, through Strange New Worlds, Uhura is getting the substantial storylines that she has lacked for so long.
Celia Rose-Gooding's Uhura is a Starfleet Cadet who begins Strange New Worlds unsure if the USS Enterprise is the right place for her. Her tragic backstory and clear skill with languages make Uhura a vital part of Pike's Enterprise, and her varied skillset thus far is a far cry from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier's infamous Uhura fan dance sequence. Uhura in Strange New Worlds is brilliantly realized by Rose-Gooding in a performance that respects the legacy of Nichols while pushing the character in a new direction.
3 The Rest Of The TOS Crew
As the Abrams movies are fundamentally about Kirk and Spock, the rest of the TOS crew don't get as much to do. However, the casting of the new/old Enterprise crew was occasionally inspired. For example, Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy brilliantly channeled DeForest Kelley's acerbic wit and black humor. On the other hand, Simon Pegg's Scotty occasionally lapsed into Scottish caricature. It often felt like Pegg's performance misinterpreted Scotty's exasperation at Kirk's demands of the ship as panic, rather than exasperation. In contrast, James Doohan's Scotty always had control of the ship and would rise to the challenge.
Sulu (George Takei) was often under-utilized on TOS, leading to the well-documented Kirk and Sulu feud between actors William Shatner and George Takei. As the Kelvin Timeline Sulu, John Cho fits the part well, but character-wise is just as under-utilized as in the TV show. The late Anton Yelchin was similarly great as Chekov, imbuing the role with Walter Koenig's youthful enthusiasm and boyish charm. Should Star Trek 4 ever come to fruition, Yelchin's Chekov will be a much-missed member of the crew.
2 Khan Noonien-Singh
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Ricardo Montalban was such an iconic Star Trek villain that the franchise still struggles to move on from its obsession with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This was evident in Star Trek: Nemesis, where the plot mirrored that of the classic Nicholas Meyer-directed movie. When the Kelvin Timeline was established, Star Trek was faced with the choice of telling new stories or re-telling old ones. Predictably, it chose the latter and attempted to copy The Wrath of Khan with predictably controversial results.
Khan, the role of a genetically engineered 'superman' believed to have originated in India, and played by a Mexican actor in TOS, was played by a white British man in Star Trek Into Darkness. Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan never quite understood the nuance of Montalban's performance, lacking the suave charisma and flamboyant flourishes. Instead, he zeroed in on the quiet malice and the self-destructive bloodthirsty rage from the conclusion of Wrath of Khan. It was a disappointing return for the fan-favorite character, which proved that Into Darkness didn't understand Star Trek's greatest villain.
1 The Borg Queen
From her first appearance in First Contact to her last appearance (to date) in Star Trek: Picard season 2 the Borg Queen has been played by four different actors. The original Borg Queen, Alice Krige, is the definitive interpretation of the character, unforgttably facing off against Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: First Contact. Krige played the role with a chilly detachment that could also give way to a seductive and manipulative streak. Krige was unavailable to reprise her role in Star Trek: Voyager season 5, and she was replaced by Susanna Thompson for two confrontations with Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).
While each Borg Queen is arguably different, due to the host body, the central consciousness of the Borg Collective remains the same, so it's fair to say that the character has been played by multiple actors. It gets confusing in Star Trek: Picard season 2 when the late Annie Wersching plays a Borg Queen from an alternate dimension, but given her knowledge of the changes to the timeline, it's fair to assume that this is the exact same consciousness as in First Contact. This version then splinters off to become a new Borg Queen when she bonds with Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), but it's still technically the exact same character from First Contact. Whether this now means there are two Borg Queens creates some intriguing possibilities for future Borg stories in Star Trek's future.