William Shatner Says He Didn’t Make Any Money from Star Trek Reruns in the ’70s: ‘I Didn’t Benefit’

William Shatner is getting candid about his Star Trek finances, including one stat that isn’t as out-of-this-world as fans may imagine.

The Star Trek: The Original Series star, 94, shared in a new interview with The Telegraph that he didn’t make any money from 1970s reruns of the beloved series, which he starred in as Capt. James T. Kirk from 1966 to 1969.

“Nobody knew about re-runs,” he told the outlet in an interview published on Sunday, Sept. 7. “The concept of syndication only came in after Star Trek was cancelled when someone from the unions said: ‘Wait a minute, you’re replaying all those films, those shows.'”

“There was a big strike,” he added. “But in the end, the unions secured residual fees shortly after Star Trek finished, so I didn’t benefit.”

After Star Trek‘s run on NBC, where it was canceled after three seasons and 79 episodes in 1969, the series found a new life and wider fanbase via syndication in the ’70s.

From there came spinoffs and several theatrical releases, starting with 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Shatner previously wrote on X in 2020 that anything before 1973 — “including” the original series — “doesn’t pay a cent in royalties.”

While Shatner “couldn’t have [made] more than a couple of hundred dollars a month” when he started his acting career in Canada, as he told The Telegraph, the original Star Trek series “paid very well for me.” But it wasn’t too much, he added.

“But by the standards of Hollywood, not very well — and with a dissolving marriage, with three children, I was broke at that point,” he added, noting that he began to feel financially secure “from the 1970s onward.”

“The summer that Star Trek was cancelled I put together a touring company – which is very common all over the U.S., but particularly on the East Coast. Up in Cape Cod, there are so many villages that you could readily find an audience,” Shatner said. “I booked the whole summer, a week in each town, filling each theatre. We put on a one-set Broadway play and made a living there, just about.”

“At the end of the summer, I came back to Los Angeles and the work began to flow in.”

Shatner has since reprised the role of Kirk in multiple mainline films and in Star Trek: The Animated Series, which ran for two seasons on NBC from 1973 to 1974.

The actor, who last month announced his forthcoming book William Shatner…And You (co-authored with Joshua Brandon), rang in his 94th birthday back in March.

At the time, he told PEOPLE that he celebrated by working on The Hollywood Charity Horse Show and was taking a trip to Las Vegas for dinner and a show with family.