Karl Urban had the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream when he got to play the iconic character of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the three Kelvin Universe Star Trek feature films. He hasn’t donned a Starfleet uniform since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, but the actor appears to be holding out hope for another go.

Isn’t it dead, Jim?

Of all the main cast members of the three Kelvin movies, Karl Urban may have been the biggest Star Trek fan, or at least comes close to Simon Pegg, who is certainly nerdy, but admittedly more of a Star Wars fan. Karl has been out doing publicity for his role as Johnny Cage in the new movie Mortal Kombat II, and in a “Does Karl Urban Know His Lines?” video interview with Variety, when he was shown his famous “Are you out of your Vulcan mind?” line from 2009’s Star Trek, the actor immediately started talking about how much he loved TOS as a kid and recalling how special his first audition for Dr. McCoy was.

In all, Urban called his time on that first film, “a wonderful experience to be a part of,” especially getting the chance “to work with Leonard Nimoy and see him don the pointy years, first time in 17 years, was a trip.” Urban then seemed to just blow past reports that Paramount has moved on from making another Kelvin movie:

“I think the whole cast would love to the opportunity to do another movie. And, you know, we’ll wait and see.”

Karl Urban at the premiere of Star Trek Beyond in 2016 (Getty/Paramount)

At CinemaCon last month, Paramount executives re-confirmed there is a Star Trek feature film in development, but offered no details about it or when it might materialize. The prevailing assumption is that the film they were referring to was the one previously reported to be in development from the Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, announced last November. Theirs is reportedly a “new take on the Star Trek universe and not connected to any previous or current television series, movie or prior movie development projects.” There haven’t been any updates since that November announcement.

Maybe Urban is just being hopeful, but a potential Star Trek 4 sequel to Star Trek Beyond has died before and been resurrected over the last decade, well before the latest announcement that the series is done.

Would have regretted not returning for Beyond

In a different video interview (this time with Esquire), Urban answered questions from the internet, including one about a role he almost didn’t take. He explained how he almost bowed out of Beyond:

“So there was a hot minute there where I had another project that was lining up to compete with Star Trek Beyond, and there was no script that we could read. And so I had to pick one or the other. And so it was really my conversation with Justin Lin when he described, what it was that he wanted to do with the character of Bones. And I just thought, you know what? I would be remiss, I would be kicking myself if I didn’t get one more ride with those guys. I’m so glad I did.”

This picks up on comments Urban made at STLV 2017, when he first confirmed he almost wasn’t in Beyond.  He told the Las Vegas crowd he was “a little disappointed with the lack of development with McCoy in [Star Trek Into Darkness].” At that time, he gave some detail on how director Justin Lin sealed the deal:

“He told me the story and when he explained the situation of Bones and Spock being shot out of the turbolift into space and crash landing on a planet and being marooned together I was like ‘In! I am in in a big way!’ It was sort of me letting them know I expected a somewhat higher caliber of contribution for the character of McCoy. And it prompted them to develop it more and I certainly had a great ally in [co-star and Beyond co-screenwriter] Simon Pegg.”

Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto in Star Trek Beyond (Paramount/Skydance)

For now, the future of Star Trek on both the small screen and the big screen remains in limbo. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Urban will get his wish and return to the role.

Keep up with everything to do with the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.