Tom Cruise As Christopher Pike?

IGN is reporting that a source that Star Trek XI director J.J. Abrams is thinking of casting Tom Cruise as Captain Christopher Pike. This rumor is based on the friendship that developed between the two when Abrams directed Cruise in Mission Impossible III.

The rumor apparently had come up before but Cruise's spokesman Arnold Robinson had denied the rumor. At the time Cruise had just lost the studio deal with Paramount so definite no. Time has passed and if sell it as doing something for a friend (Abrams) rather then the studio...well it could happen.

Time frame wise with the original series, Christopher Pike was the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk. He was captain for about estimated 20 or so years. At the time of the Cage, the first pilot episode of Star Trek, he was played by Jeffrey Hunter who was 38 at the time. Cruise is 45 but still can pass as younger with little effort. Considering James T Kirk became captain of the Enterprise at age 31, at 15 year discrepancy is about right. So since the story is a flashback to the early years of the famed crew, it all comes together pretty easily and without contradicting Star Trek "history".

So based on all this, is it feasible for Christopher Pike the character (and by extension the Enterprise perhaps) to be in the movie? Yep, no problem at all. Will Tom Cruise play that role? I am going to go with a no for now. I think such a move will overwhelm the movie and the marketing of the movie will become the Cruise Cameo Show then the movie itself. I can just imagine ET, EW, etc all asking "did you meet Cruise?", "what was he like to work with?", and all the trailers and commercials will make heavy use of him. Not his fault, its just how the game is played.
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