Elon Musk and William Shatner tweet each other after Twitter buy William Shatner speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Star Trek" in San Diego, Calif. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Actor William Shatner, best known for his role as Captain Kirk in “Star Trek,” called billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “ador[able]” and offered to become the new “face of Twitter” after Musk purchased the platform in a $44 billion deal.
“BTW, since it seems to be the latest ‘thing’ on here. I’m stating that I’m staying on Twitter. Besides I think @elonmusk is adorbs. Also, full disclosure: I’m trying to pitch Elon to hire me as face of Twitter. #dumpthebird,” Shatner tweeted on Thursday.
Musk responded to Shatner’s tweet on Friday, writing, “You will always be my Captain.”
You will always be my Captain
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2022
Shatner’s post garnered a flurry of both positive and negative replies, including one user called “AMindfulTeacher,” who tweeted, “Does anyone really care what [William Shatner] thinks? Nope.”
Another user called “yospock” responded to the self-identified teacher’s jab, writing, “Why are you here, then?”
Why are you here, then?
— yospock (@yospock) May 1, 2022
Shatner himself then replied “yospock,” tweeting, “To show they are a card carrying member of the bio hypocrites club?”
🤔 To show they are a card carrying member of the bio hypocrites club? 🤷🏼♂️🤣 https://t.co/iXNL58tGtA
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) May 1, 2022
Shatner’s response was in reference to the Twitter bio of “AMindfulTeacher,” which stated, “A teacher of literature, of life, and of meditation. Into forgiveness, openness, lovingkindness, peace, acceptance, equanimity, empowerment, and doing no harm.”
Earlier this year, 90-year-old Shatner climbed aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and launched into space. The entire journey lasted around 10 minutes, traveling about 62 miles above sea level at three times the speed of sound, or 2,300 miles per hour. Shatner experienced about four minutes of weightlessness.
“It’s unbelievable,” Shatner said upon returning to Earth. “I’m so filled with emotion about what happened.”
“I hope I never recover from this. I hope I can maintain what I feel now,” the actor continued. “I don’t want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me and life.”
Prior to the flight, Shatner said he expected the experience to be “life changing.”
“There is this mystique about being in space and being that much closer to the stars and being weightless,” Shatner said. “I shall be entranced by the view of space. I want to look at that orb and appreciate its beauty. Its tenacity is sustaining this life of ours, which allows us to look with awe and wonder at the miracle of space.”
Shatner also acknowledged Star Trek fans’ excitement that his character, Captain Kirk, is going into space.
“And it looks like there’s a great deal of curiosity about this fictional character Captain Kirk going into space, so let’s go along with it and enjoy the ride,” he said.
