Star Trek: All 5 Captain Kirk Actors, Ranked

Captain James Tiberius Kirk is one of science fiction's greatest leaders, as well as one of its greatest characters. A firm but fair man, he embodies the futuristic ideal of a man in the 1960s. Not afraid to work with other races or creeds, and telling the audience that there's always something out there to learn. Despite his legendary status, it's surprising then that there's only been a handful of actors to play Captain Kirk officially. Even in the animated series from the '70s, the original cast reprised their roles.

Kirk was cemented as a favorite once Shatner starred in six "Star Trek" movies and "The Next Generation" movie, "Generations." with Chris Pine taking over the role in 2009. Paul Wesley currently helms the captain's chair of the Farragut as Kirk, making sporadic appearances in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'" more dramatic episodes. Two other actors should be included, too, but you won't see much in the way of fan projects here. This is all the actors who have officially played Kirk, ranked by their impact on the franchise. Yes, even the little kid who appeared for three minutes gets a mention.

He's in the movie for all but three minutes, so unfortunately, little Bennett (now 30 years old) gets placed last here. Yes, he's in a great sequence in the best "Star Trek" movie (according to Rotten Tomatoes), where a young Kirk steals a car at the start of the movie, but it's not like he inhabits the role in any meaningful way. It's the beginning of the movie, it's the foundations being laid to introduce a new audience to this fresh take on Captain Kirk. We're sure Spock would agree it's logical to include him in the list, but he's not impactful enough to really talk at length about.

Bennett's role might be short, but he does help with cementing the energy that the Kelvin version of "Star Trek" introduced. That said, Bennett's career has slowed a little bit since 2017, with his last few major roles including Mojo in the Amazon cop show, "Bosch." He starred in an episode of "Pachinko" on Apple TV+, but since then, no actor tracking site seems to have much information about him since 2024. His presumed Instagram last posted something nearly 20 weeks ago, and nothing since.

In the final episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series," "Turnabout Intruder," Kirk and an ex-lover swap bodies as she tries to take over the Enterprise. Played by Sandra Smith, Dr. Janice Lester switches with Kirk, tries to kill him, until the strangeness of the possessed Kirk starts a mutiny. While Shatner entered overdrive in the episode, with even more exaggeration than usual, Smith was a little more subdued.

It's an odd episode and hasn't aged especially well. One of Lester's reasons for overtaking the ship is that she believes that her career was scuppered due to sexism. The body swap was meant to get her into that position, kill Kirk, who broke her heart, and wipe her gender out. What could have been an episode focusing on the gender inequality themes winds up becoming a bizarre experiment of watching Smith try to emulate Shatner, while Shatner emulates Shatner playing a woman in a man's body.

Outside of it being an episode where there's another actor playing Kirk, "Turnabout Intruder" was the last episode before the show was canceled. Lester hasn't appeared much in "Star Trek" media since, with a brief mention in the IDW comic, "Focus on... Star Trek," as Kirk makes future plans. Smith, herself retired in 1975, but is remembered as being the only other actor to play Kirk before 2009's reboot.

Appearing in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," a prequel series set 10 years before "The Original Series," it follows the previous Enterprise captain, Pike. In a few of the episodes, Kirk makes an appearance, with his first in episode 10, "A Quality of Mercy." Wesley's take on the younger Kirk is that of someone who already has experience in Starfleet. While Pine's Kirk was bouncing off the walls, Wesley's Kirk is much calmer, focused, but with an air of cockiness about him.

As the show progresses, Wesley begins to fall into the role even more, with the early reactions from some online being taken back as the show hit its Season 3 finale. Presumably, as "Strange New Worlds" edges ever closer to the fate of Pike (being burnt and confined to a machine), fans will begin to see more of Wesley's Kirk in the yet-to-air Season 4.

This said, Wesley might not be exactly Shatner, but the demeanor and on-screen presence as the show allows him to progress in the role is quickly shaping him to be one of the better non-Shatner Kirks. However, it's unlikely you'll see much of Wesley's take on Kirk outside of "Strange New Worlds," as there's currently no in-production "Star Trek" TV shows for the first time since "Discovery" aired.

A victim of the hand being dealt, Chris Pine's take on Captain Kirk in the 2009 reboot of "Star Trek" is a high-energy, flanderization of the original character, just as the rest of the movie exaggerates the entire cast and story. Kirk, known to be a ladies' man, is now less suave chauvinist and more bed hopper. In the first movie, it works pretty well, rejuvenating a franchise that'd sputtered out, but by the time it gets to "Into Darkness," a pseudo-remake of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," it borders on grating.

Pine is a fine actor, but his Kirk is influenced by a studio or director's need to make anything but an actual entry in "Star Trek." There are some emotional moments that try to mimic a fraction of what Shatner put into the work, but it never slows down for Pine to expand on outside of the incredible pace at which the first two movies are set. It isn't until the third movie, when Simon Pegg got hold of the script that Pine's Kirk resembles a somewhat normal modern take on the character.

He's still flanderized, but significantly less so than the first two films. It helps that a majority of the movie feels like a faster-paced episode of a modern "Star Trek" series, helmed by people who genuinely understand the franchise, rather than someone trying to make competition for "Star Wars." Pine will presumably never take up the role again, as the next movie in production has no real date attached to it, if Paramount is even interested in reviving the Kelvin timeline after spending years reworking the main one.

Actors will come and go, but there will only ever be one true Captain Kirk. Shatner cemented himself as the best, regardless of the quality of his acting compared to the rest of the cast, as he fully inhabits the role through the on-screen chemistry with his crew. Everything that a "Star Trek" captain should be, from the way they talk and behave, stems from William Shatner. Addressing the crew as "Mister Spock" or "Mister Sulu" was inherited by Picard and Janeway, while his more forward approach to situations can be clearly seen in Commander Sisko.

Unlike the other two adult actors who have taken on the role, Shatner was also an expert in the quieter, more thoughtful moments. When Kirk takes command of a situation, you believe it. However, despite the macho bravado that J.J. Abrams' reboot heightened, Shatner's Kirk was very much intertwined with the rest of the crew. Those on-screen relationships and the chemistry between Kirk, Bones, and Spock are unparalleled, even by the superior "The Next Generation."