Star Trek Beyond: Gee Takei Calls Gay Sulu "Really Unfortunate"

Contents:

• GEE TAKEI REACTS TO GAY SULU NEWS: “I THK IT’S REALLY UNFORTUNATE”
• HAS STAR TREK'S SULU ALWAYS BEEN GAY? IT'S COMPLITED
• SULU IS GAY IN 'STAR TREK BEYOND,' MAKG FRANCHISE HISTORY
• ‘STAR TREK BEYOND’ NFIRMS THAT HIKA SULU IS GAY
• GEE TAKEI LLS 'STAR TREK BEYOND' GAY SULU SCENE 'A WHISPER'
• STAR TREK ACTORS STAND BEHD GAY SULU REVELATN
• GEE TAKEI CALLS 'STAR TREK BEYOND' 'S GAY SULU 'REALLY UNFORTUNATE'
• STAR TREK BEYOND: GEE TAKEI CALLS GAY SULU "REALLY UNFORTUNATE"
• SIMON PEGG: I RPECTFULLY DISAGREE WH GEE TAKEI OVER GAY SULU
• GEE TAKEI REACTS TO GAY SULU NEWS: 'I THK IT'S REALLY UNFORTUNATE'
• SIMON PEGG CLARIFI GAY SULU CONCERNS WH ‘STAR TREK’ CANON EXPLANATN
• MAKG ‘STAR TREK’S’ SULU GAY IS A LAME MOVE BY BAD SCREENWRERS
• BOLDLY GOG: HOW 'STAR TREK' AND A GAY SULU GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO COME OUT
• SIMON PEGG: I “RPECTFULLY DISAGREE” WH GEE TAKEI ON GAY SULU

GEE TAKEI REACTS TO GAY SULU NEWS: “I THK IT’S REALLY UNFORTUNATE”

Neverthels, Takei — who announced he was gay 2005 — was fully attuned to the gay equaly nversatn gag momentum at the time.

Te to s tle, the latt big-screen outg, Star Trek Beyond, has gone where none have gone before: Star John Cho — who assum the Sulu mantle for the third time the reboots — has told Atralia’s Herald Sun that the character is revealed to be gay. He had never asked for Sulu to be gay.

HAS STAR TREK'S SULU ALWAYS BEEN GAY? IT'S COMPLITED

“I’m lighted that there’s a gay character, ” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. Takei tried to nvce him to make a new character gay stead.

“I told him, ‘Be imagative and create a character who has a history of beg gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, sudnly beg revealed as beg closeted.

SULU IS GAY IN 'STAR TREK BEYOND,' MAKG FRANCHISE HISTORY

In other words, assumg non orthodoxy, this storyle suggt Sulu would have had to have first been gay and married, only to then go to the closet years later. Not long after Cho’s bombshell ll me another, this one om L, aga rmg him that Sulu was ed to be gay Star Trek Beyond. '” Takei was certa the creative team had rethought their cisn to make Sulu gay.

Cho said was bound to e out that his character was gay, and “what should he do? “I really tried to work wh the people when at long last the issue of gay equaly was gog to be addrsed, ” Takei says. Takei for his part is hopg to take Sulu new directns as well, potentially on CBS’ upg Star Trek seri, slated to premiere January and -n by Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller, who is openly gay.

On Thursday, the Herald Sun announced that the character Hika Sulu will be revealed to be gay Star Trek Beyond, which hs theaters July 22. Gee Takei, who played Sulu the origal show and who has been a proment LGBT activist sce g out as gay jt over a ago, told the Hollywood Reporter that he has been agast revealg the character as gay sce he first heard was unr nsiratn last year. “I’m lighted that there’s a gay character, ” Takei told THR.

‘STAR TREK BEYOND’ NFIRMS THAT HIKA SULU IS GAY

He believed ma more sense to create a new character who has always been gay, rather than brgg Sulu out of a prumed closet. ” But he also exprsed a ncern, which he discsed wh L and -wrer Doug Jung, that a new gay character may have been perceived by the dience as a token gay character, “primarily fed by their sexualy. ” Pegg believ Rodnberry’s cisn not to velop a gay character earlier was a product of his time, not of his visn.

” Based on the movie’s timele, the cisn to make Sulu gay do not necsate his havg been the closet, Pegg explas, and prum that there has been an LGBT prence sce the begng of the anchise’s universe.

Hika Sulu is now known as the first openly gay character  Star Trek, but the character's sexualy hasn't always been so clear-cut. In 2005, 36 years after Star Trek: The Origal Seri end, Sulu's origal actor, Gee Takei, publicly me out as gay. Wantg to honor this legacy, Simon Pegg me up wh the ia of havg Sulu be gay  J.

GEE TAKEI LLS 'STAR TREK BEYOND' GAY SULU SCENE 'A WHISPER'

John Cho supported the ia, as did Zachary Quto, the actor who played Spock and who publicly me out as gay 2011. Why Takei Was Upset That Sulu Beme Gay. Takei publicly disagreed wh wrer and Stty actor, Simon Pegg about the plan to make Sulu gay.

STAR TREK ACTORS STAND BEHD GAY SULU REVELATN

While he wholeheartedly supported the cln of LGBTQ+ characters  Star Trek, he thought a new character should be created stead of makg Sulu nonilly gay.

Pegg was also wary of Takei's advice to create a new character simply to fulfill the purpose of havg a gay character, as he thought that would lim the character to tokenism. Was Sulu Gay In The Wir Star Trek Canon?

GEE TAKEI CALLS 'STAR TREK BEYOND' 'S GAY SULU 'REALLY UNFORTUNATE'

The fact that his dghter existed many of the novels and gam don't preclu the possibily that Sulu might be gay. Abrams' Star Trek exist on different timel, 's possible to say that both a straight Sulu and a gay Sulu exist as part of the multiverse's non. One of the “Star Trek” universe’s most beloved characters is revealed to be gay the latt stallment of the inic anchise.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thg out , which is where I hope we are gog as a speci, to not policize one’s personal orientatns, ” he and Pegg’s cisn to pict Sulu as a gay man was a nod to Gee Takei, who played the role the origal 1960s “Star Trek” televisn seri and six subsequent films, Cho said.

STAR TREK BEYOND: GEE TAKEI CALLS GAY SULU "REALLY UNFORTUNATE"

Takei, 79, me out as gay 2005, and has sce gone on to bee an outspoken advote for LGBT rights. UPDATE: After news of this story broke, Takei lled the cisn to pict Sulu as a gay man “really unfortunate” a Hollywood Reporter terview.

In a tribute to his ongog legacy as an in of the Star Trek anchise, wrer Simon Pegg and director Jt L cid make Sulu nonilly gay the upg movie. While Hollywood still has a long way to go terms of queer reprentatn, feels appropriate for Star Trek to be the first big sci-fi anchise to clu a gay character s ma st. The reboot versn of Sulu is gay, we learned "Beyond, " the third of the new movi.

Takei has said publicly he is agast the ia of Sulu beg gay, and he had plenty to say about here at the 50th anniversary Star Trek nventn Las Vegas. Takei would have preferred for the reboot filmmakers to create a new gay character. " Takei says he has agreed to disagree on the issue of gay Sulu wh the movie's -wrer Simon Pegg, wh whom he has exchanged emails.

SIMON PEGG: I RPECTFULLY DISAGREE WH GEE TAKEI OVER GAY SULU

Image source, PAImage ptn, Simon Pegg (send left) receiv a kiss om Chris Pe at Star Trek Beyond's UK premiereThe stars of the latt Star Trek film have stood behd s revelatn that long-standg character Sulu is gay. "I'm lighted that there's a gay character [ the film], " the 79-year-old told the Hollywood he claimed the "outg" of Hika Sulu was "a twistg" of Gene [Rodnberry]'s creatn, "to which he put so much thought" said Star Trek creator Rodnberry "was a strong supporter of LGBT equaly" but had always envisned Sulu as heterosexual.

The actor - who went on to play Sulu the six Star Trek films ma between 1979 and 1991 - announced he was gay source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Gee Takei (left) and John Cho share the role of Sulu, helmsman of the Starship EnterpriseSpeakg on Tuday before Star Trek Beyond's UK premiere, Simon Pegg said the revelatn about Sulu's sexualy "don't change Gee's Sulu any way". "I was worried bee I knew [Gee] was a gay man who had played a straight character, " he told the BBC.

"Quto, who is also openly gay, add: "The LGBT (Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr) muny has long advoted for reprentatn the Star Trek universe. Out actor Gee Takei is not happy that the big-screen versn of his Star Trek character is gay. “I’m lighted that there’s a gay character.

GEE TAKEI REACTS TO GAY SULU NEWS: 'I THK IT'S REALLY UNFORTUNATE'

Takei also revealed that he had suggted to Rodnberry back 1968 that the socially md science-fictn seri should explore the gay equaly nversatn.

SIMON PEGG CLARIFI GAY SULU CONCERNS WH ‘STAR TREK’ CANON EXPLANATN

He also said that the cisn to make his character gay me om director Jt L and wrer (and -star) Simon Pegg, who wanted to honor Takei.

But stead of beg met wh excement and support, Cho was met wh opposn, as Takei tried to nvce him to make a new character gay stead.

“I told him, ‘Be imagative and create a character who has a history of beg gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, sudnly beg revealed as beg closeted, ’ ” Takei told the Reporter. Sce the new films take place before the origal TV seri, they now suggt that Sulu was gay and married before gog to the closet later. Hot on the trail of the news that Star Trek Beyond will feature the first openly gay character John Cho's Sulu, the actor origally behd the character has reacted surprisg fashn.

MAKG ‘STAR TREK’S’ SULU GAY IS A LAME MOVE BY BAD SCREENWRERS

In ntrast, Takei isn't happy wh the change:"I’m lighted that there’s a gay character.

He would clearly prefer a different, new character to be gay, as he told John Cho when he revealed all:"I told him, 'Be imagative and create a character who has a history of beg gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, sudnly beg revealed as beg closeted. Back 1968, Takei me out to Rodnberry and pched the ia of tacklg homosexual rights the show the same way Civil Rights and the Vietnam War had been allegorised.

Pegg has said he tend the revelatn the new film that the character – now played by John Cho – is a same-sex relatnship as a tribute to Takei’s gay rights on Thursday the actor rpond by sayg he thought the move was “really unfortunate”, as he felt suggted sexualy was somethg that uld be retrofted. ”Pegg exprsed sympathy wh Takei’s sentiment that mastream gay hero were belatedly g to the big screen, but rejected the ia that this meant a new character need creatg. We uld have troduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily fed by their sexualy, seen as the ‘gay character’, rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism?

BOLDLY GOG: HOW 'STAR TREK' AND A GAY SULU GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO COME OUT

Also, the dience would fer that there has been an LGBT prence the Trek Universe om the begng (at least the Kelv timele), that a gay hero isn’t somethg new or strange.

SIMON PEGG: I “RPECTFULLY DISAGREE” WH GEE TAKEI ON GAY SULU

”Neverthels, Takei — who announced he was gay 2005 — was fully attuned to the gay equaly nversatn gag momentum at the time.

” Alas, the show was nceled the followg season ‘Star Trek’ Gets Its First LGBTQ Character: Sulu Is Revealed to Be Gay But Star Trek has lived long and prospered for stud home Paramount, spawng six TV seri and 13 feature films.