William Shatner is boldly going where few 95-year-old Hollywood legends have gone before.

The Star Trek icon has announced a surprise new career move, and this one has nothing to do with space travel. Shatner is heading into heavy metal.

The veteran actor is set to debut his new heavy metal project, The *uckers, at Riot Fest in Chicago later this year.

Shatner will take the stage at Douglass Park on Sunday, September 20, marking his first appearance at the punk and alternative music festival.

The unexpected announcement came after Riot Fest spent years trying to convince the beloved Captain James T. Kirk actor to join the lineup.

The festival had some fun with the news, joking that Chicago should rename a boat after Shatner so he could “captain a ship again,” a nod to his legendary Star Trek role.

Riot Fest also posted a video of Shatner confirming the surprise performance himself.

“Riot Fest fans, Shatner here,” he said.

“I’ve been thinking about all those letters you sent me, and I decided you’re such big fans of mine that I’m going to debut my heavy metal record at Riot Fest,” he continued. “I hope you’ll be there. I hope I’m there.”

Then, in true Shatner fashion, he added a strange rider request.

“I hope you have my rider, and yes, don’t forget my bowl of sauerkraut, if you please,” he said.

Shatner also promoted the performance with a photo of himself holding a guitar.

“I am going to be doing a live performance of my new live heavy metal spectacle at Douglas Park in Chicago,” he wrote.

He added, “This is an event you definitely will be telling your grandchildren about! I hope to see you there.”

Festival founder Mike “Riot Mike” Petryshyn said the booking came after years of persistent efforts to get Shatner to perform.

“After years of persistently, and perhaps annoyingly, writing letters to William Shatner about performing at Riot Fest, it appears that he was finally compelled,” Petryshyn said.

“I, for one, cannot wait to see Shatner get heavy,” he added. “But that Shatner rider… wasn’t expecting that today.”

Shatner said the performance fits with the spirit of experimentation that has followed him throughout his long career.

“I’ve always believed that music, like space, is about exploration,” he said in a statement.

“Riot Fest is exactly the kind of place where anything can happen,” he continued. “We’re bringing volume, intensity, and a few surprises. I can’t wait to share this experience with the fans.”

The wild new career twist comes just months after Shatner publicly fired back at a Facebook group that he accused of spreading fake stories about his health and using AI-generated images of him in a hospital bed.

“There is a page on Facebook that is using AI to create horrible fake news stories about me,” Shatner wrote at the time.

He said the page had pushed false claims that he had stage 4 brain cancer, had been involved in some kind of fight with Erika Kirk, and was dying.

“None of these stories are true,” Shatner said.

He also accused the people behind the page of making money from the fake stories.

“All their stories are monetized,” he wrote. “Most of the stories use an AI image of me.”

Shatner said the posts looked real enough that fans were reposting them and sending messages of support to him and his family.

The former Rescue 911 host also claimed that Facebook would not remove the page, even after the content was reported.

He said he had also tried to contact the group’s “CEO” through X and publicly asked for the material to be taken down.

Shatner ended his warning with a simple message for fans.

“If you see a bizarre story about me, unless you see it posted on one of my verified accounts, take it with a grain of salt,” he wrote.

Now, instead of answering more grim rumors, Shatner is preparing for a very different kind of headline.

At 95, the actor who made his name commanding the Starship Enterprise is getting ready to step in front of a Riot Fest crowd with a heavy metal band.

And if Shatner has his way, fans may be talking about it for years.