Sometimes, it feels like the rivalry between Star Trek and Star Wars fans is sectarian in nature. And, while some of the actors who played iconic roles in the franchises are willing to find common ground, others are more keen to dig their heels in and, to paraphrase one of the most infamous Star Wars villains of all time, let the hate flow through them. As it turns out, one of these people who seems to have the anger of a soccer hooligan toward the competing space franchise is none other than William Shatner – and he chose the most auspicious day in the Star Wars fan calendar to let his pettiness show.
When it comes to arguing which of the two franchises has been more influential, it’s not easy to come up with a solution. Both Star Trek and Star Wars have passionate — veering toward rabid — fanbases, and both have been cited as influences by everyone from James Gunn to the writers of The Simpsons. And, since Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars, the George Lucas franchise has been pumping out enough content to finally match the sheer number of episodes and films that exist in the Trek universe (626 hours and counting, by the way).
Shatner has never been afraid to wade into the debate about which of the two is better. At Comic Con 2022, when an audience member asked him about the ever-increasing amount of Star Wars content and if it was affecting the quality of what was being produced, he replied: “Fuck Star Wars… But not Mark Hamill. We love Mark Hamill.” Just two days ago he also tweeted about how it was blasphemy for him to consider working on a Star Wars production. So, not exactly subtle from Captain Kirk.
As expected, users were quickly in the mentions to big up their side in the respective debate, with most coming in hot for Star Trek – unspurprising as it was under Shatner’s tweet.
Others replied with happier stories of enjoying Star Trek, and what the franchise meant to them, giving a sweet aftertaste to Shatner’s acerbic reply.
Whether you prefer watching the crew of the Enterprise beam in, or Luke weaving his way into the Death Star, there’s no doubt that both of these iconic sci-fi franchises have produced magic over the years, and thankfully it seems that both are here to stay. We know for a fact that we’ll be getting more content from both in the near future, so debates about which one is better are also here to stay – and we can’t wait to hear Shatner’s next snarky take on his star-bound rivals.