For fans of spacefaring sci-fi and fantasy, it’s a remarkable time to be alive. Both the “Star Trek” and the “Star Wars” franchises are experiencing long-running revivals, in large part thanks to the advent of streaming platforms. But fans won’t see Nicolas Cage in a “Star Wars” movie anytime soon. When Yahoo! asked the actor how he feels about joining the “Star Wars” universe, he made it clear where his loyalties lie. “‘No’ is the answer. I’m not really down. I’m a Trekkie, man,” he declared. Driving the point home, he added, “I’m not in the ‘Star Wars’ family. I’m in the ‘Star Trek’ family.”
And it’s not just lip service — Cage’s love of “Star Trek” runs deep. “I grew up watching [William] Shatner. I thought [Chris] Pine was terrific in the movies,” he said. Like many Trekkies, Cage feels the series’ often nuanced sociopolitical commentary elevates it above standard sci-fi shows like “Lost in Space.” As he put it, “What science fiction is really all about and why it’s such an important genre is that [it] is really where you can say whatever you want, however you feel, you put it on a different planet, you put it in a different time or in the future … And ‘Star Trek’ really embraced that.”
