George Takei, the openly gay actor who played Hikaru Sulu on the original Star Trek series, voiced his disapproval to the announcement that the character will come out as gay in the latest entry of the popular sci-fi franchise, Star Trek Beyond.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, Takei asserted that the decision was a regrettable mishandling of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of Sulu:
"I’m delighted that there’s a gay character," he said. "Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."
According to THR's report, the idea of Sulu, who "Roddenberry had always envisioned [...] as heterosexual," coming out as gay "came from Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the new films and penned the Beyond screenplay, and director Justin Lin, both of whom wanted to pay homage to Takei's legacy as both a sci-fi icon and beloved LGBT activist."
Takei adamantly opposed this idea when the cast and crew approached him:
I told him [John Cho, who will be playing Sulu in Beyond], 'Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted.'
I said [to Lin], '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 [that] carried us through half a century. Honor him and create a new character. I urged them.
However, after receving assurance from Lin that Sulu would not come out in Beyond, Cho told Takei later that in fact the movie will indeed reveal Sulu as gay.
"I really tried to work with these people when at long last the issue of gay equality was going to be addressed," said Takei, who told Cho his opinion on the decision was "not going to change."