Nicolas Cage is not down to join Star Wars: “I’m a Trekkie, man”
Not that he's gotten any offers, but Nicolas Cage is too loyal to Star Trek to join the Star Wars universe
Aux News Nicolas Cage
The era of the blockbuster franchise has had an untold impact on cinema as a whole. One consequence is turning competing IP into camps and demanding loyalty from fans and stars alike. If an actor plays it right, they could collect a few, like Zoe Saldaña with Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians Of The Galaxy. Some rare performers, like Christian Bale, might get to work for competing studios (in this case, Batman for DC and Gorr for Marvel). But others, like Nicolas Cage, may have formed their loyalties long ago without ever even being cast.
Asked in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment! reporter Kevin Polowy if he’d join his Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent co-star Pedro Pascal in the Star Wars universe, Cage replied, “No is the answer, and I’m… not really down. I’m a Trekkie, man. I’m on the Star Trek, I’m on the Enterprise. That’s where I roll.”
“[That’s] a fact. 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 and the sociological,” he continued. “To me, what science fiction is really all about and why it’s such an important genre is that is really where you can say whatever you want, however you feel. You put it on a different planet, you put it in a different time, in the future, and you can, without people just jumping on it. You can really express your thoughts, like [George] Orwell or whomever in the science fiction format. And Star Trek really embraced that, I thought. They got into some serious stuff.”
Of course, Cage is no stranger to the franchise film; he played a Marvel hero in two Ghost Rider films and was once infamously signed on to play Superman in an aborted Tim Burton movie. (As far as loyalties go, Cage is a fan of both: he stole his stage name from Marvel character Luke Cage, and later named his son Kal-El after Clark Kent’s Kryptonian name over at DC.) He’s continued to associate professionally with both Marvel and DC (Into The Spider-Verse, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies) while still dipping his toes into other franchise waters.
Yet it seems the Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate is where Cage draws the line. Perhaps, now that he has publicly taken a side, he may win himself a role in the upcoming fourth film in the franchise, still in development. There are also plenty of Star Trek spin-offs over at Paramount+ if he’s willing to do television. Whatever the case, no doubt Trekkies will gladly welcome Cage to their cause.
31 Comments
I bet you could get him in a Star Wars movie if you let the Coen Brothers write and direct it.
I would totally be down with a Coen-created movie featuring Cage as a scavenger rummaging through the ruins of battle-torn Outer Rim worlds on the hunt for anything salvageable he could sell to support his sabacc habit. Or any storyline involving hardscrabble people living and thriving beyond the notice of the Empire/First Order and the Rebellion/New Republic.
I bet you could get him in a Star Wars movie if you write him a check with at least 5 zeros and his next overdue tax payment is due
This is the internet’s oldest debate, but it’s so weird to see a professional actor actually take a strong position like this. The standard response is something like “They’d both be really cool!” with a barely concealed subtext of “Whoever wants to hire me, man.” And if they did dismiss the idea, it usually comes from a more snobbish “Those kind of films don’t interest me, for I am a Serious Artist” place. To be really into nerd shit, but not indiscriminately so, and to offer a hard opinion is rare enough to be borderline refreshing.
I completely agree but Nicholas Cage has also never been a picky actor when it came to work. Albino cobras take a lot of money to feed
He’s actually said in interviews (I think at the time of “Pig”) that the crappy stuff he was doing was to pay back his IRS debt and that he was finally clear of it and would be doing more things like “Mandy” or “Pig” which were projects he actually wanted to do.
I recall that but I also know that these types of guys usually don’t learn their lessons and end up in debt with the IRS again and again. So it’s still possible
The only thing stopping the Coen Brothers from writing a Star Wars movie is their dignity.
Or just write him a cheque.
Didn’t Cage famously hate working with the Coen Brothers, because he wanted freedom to riff and improvise and they demand every word and punctuation mark be spoken as written?
Did Cage fix his spending issues from a while back? If not, I’d bet you could get him to do it with just a simple offer of money.
Get Cage onto Strange New Worlds!!!!!
A real Harry Mudd!
It’d have to be a multi-ep arc, given how much scenery chewing he’ll do to a single strange new world.
Strange Old Cage!!!!
He’d be great as an old-school insane godlike being messing with the ship.
Definitely has to be part of a Mirror Universe story. An evil Nick Cage would eat up the screen!
“Yeah, I’m such a Superman geek I saddled my own kid with a stupid name that’s going to be nothing but a hassle; and he should really change it as soon as he’s old enough.”
To BOLDLY! GO!
“The era of the blockbuster franchise has had an untold impact on cinema as a whole. One consequence is turning competing IP into camps and demanding loyalty from fans and stars alike.”Are you suggesting this is a recent phenomenon, or have you just been waiting 40 years for Nic Cage to chime in?
As someone who also strongly prefers Trek to Wars, I will also not be appearing in any Star Wars movies.
He’s got a head that demands to be covered in forehead makeup.
I want to see him show up in the next movie, even if it’s just a cameo.
A man’s gotta have a code.
honestly i deeply respect his answer. this is real nerd shit. i’ve said this before but i think it’s very interesting how cage was always a huge proponent of comics-as-art, deeply wanted them to be taken seriously, literally named his kid kal-el, etc, but as soon as they became the dominant movie force he hasn’t said a peep.
It’s because all the stuff is a big pile of mleh
The Cage was the pilot episode for Star Trek… meaning that Nicolas Cage ought to pilot a ship in Star Trek! (Not with Starfleet, though — I can only see Nicolas Cage as a Klingon. His hair is perfect, and I’m already picturing him yelling “EXPERIENCE BIJ” at the top of his lungs.)
Interesting. So nobody knew this? In hindsight, he would have made a better Khan than Benebatch Cumberdict.
Knowing that Cage is a fan of Shatner makes so much sense with some of his line deliveries over the years.
I don’t think I can even describe the feeling of absolute joy I experienced when I saw this. It’s like I just won the lottery as I ate a really good piece of pizza…while climaxing. It’s all gonna be okay.
“I really liked William Shatner. I tried to model my own method on his general acting style. The only difference was that I felt like he always played it pretty understated. So, I amped it up a couple notches in my characters.”