For more than 60 years, William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek, has had a deep passion for the natural world.
Now, at 95, he has his sights set on a new frontier: finding ways to protect our fragile planet, a passion he shares with the Prince of Wales and his Earthshot Prize, which supports solutions to repair our planet.
“I admire the work he’s doing and I just wish more people would do it,” William exclusively tells HELLO!, adding that although he has never reached out to the Prince, “or him to me”, it was something he would consider.
Prince William publicly criticised in 2021 – a day after William Shatner joined a highly controversial , orchestrated by the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to promote his Blue Origin space-travel project. The Prince said at the time that we should be “trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live”.
For William, who was 90 at the time and the oldest man to go to space, it was a “life-changing experience” that filled him with “the strongest feelings of guilt I have ever encountered,” and he disagrees with the Prince, believing that space exploration can help us to find ways to remove pollution from Earth.
© Getty ImagesWilliam, who was born in Montréal and found fame in the original Star Trek series during the Sixties, has been an environmental advocate for decades, citing Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 book Silent Spring as inspiration.
Environmentalism is a central theme in Star Trek, the original series of which ran for nearly three years between 1966 and 1969, later sparking 13 feature films and 12 spin-off series.
© Getty ImagesIn 1991, William spent 13 weeks travelling the globe to visit places that have been impacted by pollution, including Mount Everest, for the TV series Voice of the Planet.
“In my opinion, saying that global warming doesn’t exist is like saying, ‘I’m not going to die’. Global warming is happening,” he says. “There is no question that we are in an existential race.”
William recently released his latest spoken-word album, Love & Other Mysteries, described by one of its producers, country music superstar Brad Paisley, as William’s “musical memoir.” The songs on the new album capture the past five years of his life, from the Covid pandemic to his journey to space in 2021.
© WireImageWilliam is also preparing for high-profile festival appearances, including Riot Fest in Chicago and the 2027 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, where he will debut his take on heavy metal.
Five years after he became the then-oldest man to ever go into space, he also has a heavy-metal album on the horizon, featuring 35 artists from across the genre, which will be released in the near future, as well as a book edition of his spoken-word albums to be published as poetry in October 2026.
So what is the secret to his never-ending energy? “If you are capable, you just do it,” William tells HELLO! Contemplating turning 100, he adds: “There’s not a great deal of time left to do it.”
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