George Takei not happy with Sulu being gay in ‘Star Trek’

When it was revealed earlier this week that the makers of the latest “Star Trek” movie had chose to make the character of Sulu (played by John Cho) a homosexual, most might have expected George Takei to be doing cartwheels.

There are points of agreement here, in that both Takei and Pegg think that the lack of an LGTBQ+ character in the original series was due to the time it was made and not due to Roddenberry’s own beliefs.

John Cho, who plays Enterprise helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, has revealed the fan favourite character is openly gay and married in the new film.

“I really tried to work with these people when at long last the issue of gay equality was going to be addressed”, Takei said.

The actor said that while he is delighted that there is a gay character in the series now, he feels that making Hikaru Sulu gay is “a twisting of Gene’s creation”.

But on Thursday the actor responded by saying he thought the move was “really unfortunate”, as he felt it suggested sexuality was something that could be retrofitted.

Regardless of his personal opinion though, Takei was quick to lend some advice to Cho when he rang him announcing the development.

Following the call from John Cho, came another, from Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin.

George Takei shared that in 1968, at a pool party held at the home of Gene Roddenberry, the two apparently had a conversation about the possibility of having a gay character.

It should be obvious that we support LGBT representation in all forms, whether it be new characters added to old stories, or old characters being viewed through a modern, inclusive lens. Takei told The Hollywood Reporter that “Demora” was born from a fling with “a very athletic, powerful and stunningly gorgeous woman”. Lin “left me feeling that that was going to happen”. It’s a fan letter from Simon Pegg. “However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him”.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor said Roddenberry was exhaustive in conceiving his Star Trek characters, and he had always envisioned Sulu as heterosexual – although he never had an onscreen love interest.

This is not the first time for the franchise to feature gay characters, though these are more prominent in the spinoff novels rather than the feature films.