10 Movie Fan Theories That Became Fact

Anyone familiar with Gene Rodenberry’s iconic sci-fi franchise Star Trek can tell you that Captain Kirk hails from the fine state of Iowa (unless you’re a Picard person, in which case move on to the next entry in this list and there won’t be any trouble).

But have you ever wondered how the series ended up confirming the popular fan claim that he hails from the state?

Well, the legend goes that the screenwriter of this fourth film, Nicholas Meyer, was told that Kirk’s birthplace in Iowa was established lore, and so it became. By this stage (1985), Roddenberry had written that Kirk would eventually be born in Iowa.

But it was the small town of Riverside whose residents took it upon themselves to petition Paramount to name their community as the Captain’s future birthplace.

And so the studio obliged, resulting in a plaque, a few namedrops later in the series, and a massive annual Trekkie festival which has long since been a beloved tradition in the town.