10 Ways William Shatner Can Play Kirk Again In Star Trek 3

10. The Borg

After being killed off in Star Trek: Generations in 1994, William Shatner pitched an idea to Paramount that in the next movie, Kirk could be brought back to life by the Borg. At the time, Paramount were interested in doing a Star Trek movie that involved the Borg but they had no desire to bring back William Shatner as Kirk. The torch had been passed to the Next Generation crew and it was now time for their movie run. Still keen on the idea of bringing Kirk back to life, Shatner released his idea in novel form called ''The Return.'' The 1996 book elaborated on the idea of the Borg bringing Kirk back to life and using him to kill Picard. Paramount also got their Borg movie in the form of Star Trek: First Contact. The Borg already sort-off made an appearance in the new timeline universe in Star Trek: Countdown, the comic book prequel to the 2009 movie that is apparently canon. It was Borg technology that transformed Nero's ship, The Narada, from a simple Romulan mining vessel into what resembled a Giger wet dream. And according to producer and writer Bob Orci, Starfleet used scans of the Narada to reverse engineer their ships to make them more advanced:

The scans the Kelvin took of the Narada's 24th century technology, that went with the survivors on the shuttles, were used by 23rd century Starfleet to reverse engineer the more "advanced" technology seen in the alternate reality.

The Borg could see this as a threat and try to correct/disrupt the new timeline by bringing Shatner-Kirk back to life and using him to kill Pine-Kirk who they deem to be central to the success of Starfleet. Throw in the Klingons, two Kirks and an ending where the original Kirk and Spock live happily ever after in the alternative timeline, and you have the perfect way to cap off a 50 year bromance between the two.