F Simon Pegg Disagrees With George Takei On Sulu's Homosexuality | Galactic News One

Simon Pegg Disagrees With George Takei On Sulu's Homosexuality


Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the newest installment in the rebooted Star Trek franchise where he also stars as Scotty, has decided to respond to George Takei's criticism over Hikaru Sulu's gender (re-)orientation.

"I have huge love and respect for George Takei, his heart, courage and humour are an inspiration," Pegg told The Guardian. "However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him."

John Cho, who is currently playing Sulu in the new Star Trek timeline, revealed this past Thursday that as a nod to both Takei's history in playing the character and his LGBT activism, Pegg, co-writer Doug Jung and director Justin Lin had decided that Sulu was in a same-sex relationship.

Takei, who already knew of decision but could not speak of it for obvious reasons, was quick to respond to the news and called Sulu's new gender orientation "unfortunate".

"He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now. We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the ‘gay character’, rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism?"



Pegg continued: "Justin Lin, Doug Jung and I loved the idea of it being someone we already knew because the audience have a pre-existing opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice. Their sexual orientation is just one of many personal aspects, not the defining characteristic. Also, the audience would infer that there has been an LGBT presence in the Trek Universe from the beginning (at least in the Kelvin timeline), that a gay hero isn’t something new or strange. It’s also important to note that at no point do we suggest that our Sulu was ever closeted, why would he need to be? It’s just hasn’t come up before."

In his reaction, Takei also pointed out that Pegg and rest had failed to pay respect to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's amazing vision, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. However, Pegg doesn't quite see it that way.

"I don’t believe Gene Roddenberry’s decision to make the prime timeline’s Enterprise crew straight was an artistic one, more a necessity of the time. Trek rightly gets a lot of love for featuring the first interracial kiss on US television, but Plato’s Stepchildren was the lowest rated episode ever," adding that "the viewing audience weren’t open minded enough at the time and it must have forced Roddenberry to modulate his innovation. His mantra was always ‘infinite diversity in infinite combinations’. If he could have explored Sulu’s sexuality with George, he no doubt would have. Roddenberry was a visionary and a pioneer but we choose our battles carefully."


Pegg ended his response saying that their Star Trek timeline, which J.J. Abrams successfully rebooted in 2009 is full of "alternated details".

"Our Trek is an alternate timeline with alternate details,” he wrote. "Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline. I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere. Whatever dimension we inhabit, we all just want to be loved by those we love (and I love George Takei). I can’t speak for every reality but that must surely true of this one. Live long and prosper."

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 - The Guardian
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