17 Years Ago, Star Trek Confirmed Its Multiverse Was Different From Marvel’s

J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot established new rules for Star Trek's multiverse that differ from how the Marvel Cinematic Universe now portrays its alternate realities and divergent timelines. Star Trek was a pioneer in the concept of alternate timelines, having introduced the Mirror Universe, where Star Trek's characters were identical but evil, in season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Over a decade after Star Trek (2009), Marvel Studios dove headlong into its Multiverse Saga, with Loki establishing that the main MCU seen in the films is considered the "Sacred Timeline" (Earth-616). However, the MCU acknowledged the existence of other universes, as seen in previous Marvel movies from other studios, from Sony's Spider-Man to Fox's X-Men and Fantastic Four sagas, while also teasing countless other parallel realities.

Marvel's method was designed to integrate the many diverse movies that preceded or ran parallel to The Avengers and other heroes in the MCU's Earth-616. As such, Marvel Studios also acknowledged that while some characters and actors repeat throughout the multiverse, they sometimes look different and lived lives that wildly diverged from their MCU counterparts.

J.J. Abrams’ Reboot Showed How Star Trek’s Multiverse Is Different From Marvel’s

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) set different rules from what Marvel Studios would utilize. These were embodied by Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy), whose time travel was partially responsible for the alternate Kelvin timeline's creation, along with the Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana).

When Spock Prime arrived in the 23rd-century alternate reality and was stranded on Delta Vega, he soon met James T. Kirk (Chris Pine). The elder Spock immediately recognized Kirk as his youthful self, meaning Spock Prime saw what he remembered the young William Shatner looked like as Kirk. The Vulcan Ambassador did not acknowledge or define Pine's Kirk as looking different or being a different person.

Spock met his younger Kelvin Timeline counterpart, Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), at the end of Star Trek (2009). Again, the elder Vulcan did not treat his counterpart as looking or being different than himself. The inference is Quinto was the same Spock as Nimoy, just decades younger and living in an alternate reality.

Star Trek Beyond inferred the same after Spock Prime's death. Commander Spock received a box of his doppelgänger's belongings, including a photo of the aged crew of the Starship Enterprise. The Kelvin timeline Spock looked at the photo and saw what his own crew would look like in a few decades, not a bunch of different people who are Kirk, Spock, Uhura, etc. from another universe.

Since J.J. Abrams' movie characters have not crossed into Star Trek's Prime Timeline, there's been no way to acknowledge from the other side of the mirror that Pine's Kirk looks identical to Shatner's, and Quinto's Spock looks the same as Nimoy's, to everyone in-universe, despite the different actors playing them. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Paul Wesley's Kirk is the same Kirk Shatner played, just younger, the same as Ethan Peck and Nimoy's Spock.

Marvel Studios took a different tack than Star Trek. Spider-Man: No Way Home confirmed that while Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire are all Peter Parker and Spider-Man, they also all look completely different. No one perceived them as looking identical. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Deadpool & Wolverine did the same with their many Marvel doppelgängers, as will Avengers: Doomsday.

Star Trek Into Darkness Raised Unanswered Questions About Star Trek’s Multiverse

Star Trek Into Darkness threw a wrench into the previous film's rule about alternate reality doppelgängers by introducing Khan Noonien Singh. Portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, Khan originated from the Prime Timeline's 20th century and was cryogenically frozen over 200 years before the Kelvin Timeline was created in 2233. Therefore, he is meant to be the same Khan played by Ricardo Montalban.

Yet Benedict Cumberbatch's Khan is portrayed as Caucasian, not South Asian like Montalban's genetically engineered superman, despite purportedly being the same person. Star Trek Into Darkness offers no explanation for this, and does not show whether Leonard Nimoy's Spock sees Cumberbatch's Khan or how he would react, likely to sweep the film's divergence under the rug.

Otherwise, Star Trek Into Darkness' introduction of Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) could still credibly continue Star Trek (2009)'s rule of parallel universe doppelgängers. Eve's Carol can be accepted as the younger version of Bibi Besch in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, although Star Trek Into Darkness also establishes the evil Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller) as Carol's father.

Star Trek has expanded its multiverse beyond Abrams' trilogy, with Star Trek: Discovery returning to the Mirror Universe, and Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy depicting many characters from numerous alternate realities. Yet Star Trek's characters, in those instances, still look alike, despite often living different lives.

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and their Star Trek cast are outliers, but they should still be the same Kirk, Spock, etc. in the eyes of the Prime Universe's beholders.

TV Show(s)

Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Cast

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh

Created by

Gene Roddenberry