Here’s the short:

On the 30th anniversary of “Star Trek: Generations”, The Archive and William Shatner revisit Captain Kirk’s final appearance on screen in a new 8-minute video produced for The Archive app on Apple Vision Pro: “765874: Unification”, launched in tandem with new interactive sets and documentary interviews and behind the scenes content celebrating the legacy of the 1994 film.

Witwer is at the very center of the short as the stand-in for William Shatner’s young Kirk. His look was said to have been completed with physical and digital prosthetics. Here’s Witwer sharing his costume behind-the-scenes:

Again. My thanks to @WilliamShatner for his generosity and trust.#LLAP pic.twitter.com/LN9nQr4VdF

— Sam Witwer (@SamWitwer) November 20, 2024

We don’t know exactly how much of the look was make-up, but there seems to be a lot of AI-deepfake technology used—not unlike how they brought young Mark Hamill back for The Mandalorian. Probably the biggest giveaway is that Kirk barely talks in the short—and that’s essentially because the deepfakes usually have a problem replicating actual moving mouths.

Either way, it’s a stellar achievement, and a lot of fans were pretty amazed with the final product. Maybe there’s room down the line for Witwer in Trek; because I honestly can’t stand some of his Star Wars takes.