Last King of Scotland star James McAvoy’s name has been circling around the rumor mill in conjunction with J.J. Abrams new Star Trek movie for several weeks now. Well he says forget it. He’s not doing it… yet.

McAvoy tells RottenTomatoes that the rumor that he’ll be playing Scotty in Star Trek XI is completely untrue. He says it's "Rubbish, rubbish." So he doesn’t have the part. Does that mean it has been offered and he’s turned it down, that he’s auditioned for it and been rejected, or just that it hasn’t been offered? Remember, once upon a time Matt Damon said much the same thing, and now it is pretty widely accepted that he’s the top contender to play Kirk. TrekMovie reports that when Empire asked him if he’s be open to doing it if asked he said, “Hmmm [smiling]…I’d have to see.”

So what we have here is a complete non-answer. All McAvoy has really done is confirm that he doesn’t have the part… yet. The door is still wide open for him to end up with it. It’s entirely possible that he might take it if Abrams asked him. But then are we sure we want him?

In his interview with RT, he called for wholesale changes to the character before he’d take the part. “I'd need to read the script. I wouldn't play Scotty as written in the Original Series.” And there’s the problem with making a movie out of classic characters like these. Everyone wants to turn them into something else to satisfy their own ego. Everyone thinks they can do it better. Nobody is concerned with doing justice to an icon. I’d say they’d be better off looking for someone more interested in being faithful to the character, but then this is probably the kind of reaction they’ll get from just about any actor with enough clout behind them to push their own agenda. Abrams is going to have his hands full if he’s really casting this thing with names.