William Shatner Is Officially Changing Careers With Surprising New Release

Published Oct 3, 2026, 10:10 AM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

Is there anyone in Hollywood with a more varied career than William Shatner? Whereas his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy hung his hat on the role of Spock, Kirk was just the beginning for Shatner. Shatner continued to reprise his role as Kirk in the decades after Star Trek went off the air — culminating in his so-so swansong in Star Trek Generations — but in the meantime, he also played a veteran cop in T.J. Hooker, hosted the reality show Rescue 911, and starred alongside Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality.

He played attorney Denny Crane in the last season of The Practice and through its entire spinoff, Boston Legal; he was on the travel show Better Late Than Never; and he’s been hosting The UnXplained for almost a decade. As a recording artist, he’s released several albums, and as an author, he’s published dozens of books (including his aptly titled autobiography, Captain’s Log). Shatner has even followed Kirk’s footsteps into space, aboard Blue Origin NS-18, after which he briefly held the record of oldest person to fly in outer space.

Now, at 95 years young, Shatner is making yet another radical career pivot. This time, he’s fronting a heavy metal band called The *uckers.

Shatner has worn many hats, and held many different job titles — actor, singer, director, author, space captain — and you’d think, a few years away from his 100th birthday, that he might be considering retirement. But no, Shatner isn’t slowing down. He’s now the frontman of a heavy metal band called The *uckers.

The *uckers recently performed at Riot Fest in Chicago, where they performed cover versions of songs by Metallica, Motörhead, and the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. Shatner and his new band are currently touring, and they’ll be releasing an album later this year. The Star Trek star has even hinted that he and his band are on the lineup for Coachella 2027. No artists have been officially announced for next year’s Coachella, so we can’t confirm or deny, but it would be pretty cool to have Captain Kirk on the Coachella stage, belting out heavy metal lyrics.

During the tour, the band will be previewing tracks from their upcoming album, What the F is Heavy Metal, which seems like an appropriate title given that Shatner is very much a fish out of water in this genre. But if their performance at Riot Fest is anything to go by, The *uckers know exactly what the F heavy metal is.

Shatner Has Done Music Before, But Not Like This

This isn’t Shatner’s first foray into the music industry; he’s been recording music since his 1968 debut album The Transformed Man. Before forming The *uckers and giving metal a try, Shatner’s most notable contributions to music were his cover versions of hit songs. Rather than singing the lyrics, Shatner would deliver dramatic recitations over music. So, doing covers with The *uckers isn’t too far away from what Shatner has been doing in the recording studio for the last half a century.

Shatner’s most successful album to date is his third, Seeking Major Tom, released in 2011, including covers of “Space Oddity” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But What the F is Heavy Metal could overtake it later this year.

Shatner has been covering the hits for decades, but he’s not usually covering Ozzy and Motörhead; he’s usually covering David Bowie or Bob Dylan or Elton John (Family Guy hilariously parodied Shatner’s cover of “Rocket Man”). So, heavy metal is a massive change of pace for Shatner. When most screen legends his age (or even 30 years younger) are resting on their laurels, William Shatner is trying something new and having a blast doing it.