George Takei Calls Gay Sulu "Unfortunate"

Out of all the people you would have expected to have a problem with Mr. Sulu being gay, I bet actor and LGBT rights activist George Takei, who played the character in the original 1960s TV series created by Gene Roddenberry, wasn't one of them.

John Cho, who plays the character in the new Star Trek franchise, revealed not too long ago to the press that as a nod to Takei, screenwriter Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin had decided to expand Sulu's backstory in Star Trek Beyond with a husband.

At the time, the immediate thought was that Takei would be overjoyed with the news. Well, perhaps not as it seems.

Speaking exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter, Takei responds to the recent developments in Mr. Sulu's personal life.

"I’m delighted that there’s a gay character," the actor told the news outlet. "Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

Takei adds that Gene worked tirelessly to come up with the various Star Trek characters, and that Sulu was never intended to be gay.

For the actor, Sulu's new gender orientation doesn't come as a total surprise. According to Takei, he tried to dissuade Pegg, Cho, and Lin from the change when they contacted him last year breaking the big news.

"I said, 'This movie is going to be coming out on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, the 50th anniversary of paying tribute to Gene Roddenberry, the man whose vision it was carried us through half a century. Honor him and create a new character. I urged them. He left me feeling that that was going to happen," Takei says.

Alas, Takei's prays for the character to go unchanged did not reach high enough and Sulu is about to enter a new stage in his fictional life.

Opening in theaters on July 22, Star Trek Beyond also stars the late Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Sofia Boutella, Karl Urban, Deep Roy, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Joe Taslim.

Source - THR

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