Takei on Sulu being gay

from ign

I think it's sad that he's chosen to be negative about it despite that he totally has a point... to an extent.

It's a reboot. It's a reboot. It's a reboot. It doesn't really effect what gene Roddenberry created all those years ago by making changes if you think those changes will improve the character and the movie.

For me it's very similar to the decision to change Starbuck into a women on Battlestar Galactica. It was a very male heavy cast so they made a change that a lot of people didn't like but Starbuck is like .. one of the best things about that reboot.

I wish he'd just smiled and said "That's nice" so it didn't take a bit of the gloss away from the first openly-gay Star Trek character.

Also i think GR would have other more glaring issues from all of the jjverse movies.

Quote by Halish

It's a reboot. It's a reboot. It's a reboot. It doesn't really effect what gene Roddenberry created all those years ago by making changes if you think those changes will improve the character and the movie.

For me it's very similar to the decision to change Starbuck into a women on Battlestar Galactica. It was a very male heavy cast so they made a change that a lot of people didn't like but Starbuck is like .. one of the best things about that reboot.

I don't think this an appropriate analogy. BSG was a clear and decisive reboot. The JJverse is intrinsically linked to the Prime timeline.

But it begs the question of why essential character traits that define Kirk (his libidinous virility), Spock (conflicted, dispassionate haughtiness), McCoy (cantankerous humanism) are preserved in the JJverse.

On one hand, it gets to the headache-inducing crush of how the JJ universe relates to the Prime universe. Like - what are those rules, beyond the explicit cinematic meta-rationale, that JJ and his writers take such obvious pleasure in deconstructing.

But at a deeper level, it demands we take a position on what makes someone gay. Genetics? Environment? Some synergistic confluence of both?

I mean - enough of Prime Sulu is left in John Cho, that he still took up fencing. What are the odds of that?

So if you believe the biologic rationalizations for homosexual orientation, or even if you don't - why shouldn't JJ-Sulu's orientation reflect on Prime's?

I wish he'd just smiled and said "That's nice" so it didn't take a bit of the gloss away from the first openly-gay Star Trek character.

I'd like to think George has done enough IRL advocacy work that should plenty enough to trump our silly little make-pretend fictional universe.

FWIW, Simon Pegg's posted an articulate, reasoned response to George over at The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/08/simon-pegg-defends-gay-sulu-after-george-takei-criticism

As much as I like him, I have to disagree with George Takei.

Both JJ & original Sulu had zero to almost zero onscreen reference to their sexuality before this, & whatever happens just in books is not canon.

With this change will it be possible to have his daughter show up (movies after) or has she been totally rewritten as a new character? Maybe his partner or possibly she'll be something different? Just a thought For the future B)

http://www.newnownext.com/john-cho-gay-kiss-cut-star-trek-beyond/07/2016/

Wellp. So much for trek boldly going anywhere, it seems that it is more about capitalizin marketshare sizes, and of course that is too risky to do...


Let me/us know if you see the gay scene or not, but this, does NOT bode well.

I've been quite on this so far, but I really believe making Sulu gay in Star Trek: Beyond is pure tokenism. Randomly making Sulu gay is NOT representation but the 21st century equivlent of Black Face. The tragic, and untimely death of Anton Yelchin leaves room for a gay man, woman, or trans actor to take on a lead roll in trek. It's the ability to represent a massive community, the opportunity not to just phone it in. We deserve more then a revision.

According to one of the makers of discovery, who is openly gay, there will be lgbt characters and ideas dealt with, so sulu was just a poor attempt at homaging takei...

I'll be honest, I thought that Sulu's family scene was nicely done and that it felt organic. Sulu is easily one of the strongest characters in the reboot franchise and I think that the subtle incorporation of his sexuality sends nothing but a positive message to the audience.

It's true that the gay component to his character is only briefly touched on, but there's not a whole lot of space in an action movie to do a lot of prolonged character development. I think that taking more time away from the movie to focus on his sexuality or inserting a brand new character into the cast simply to explore the LGBT angle would probably have been seen moreso as tokenism than what they did. Filling the vacancy left by Chekov with an LGBT character would've been a good opportunity perhaps, but of course Anton didn't pass away until after the movie had been filmed, so it's not as though they'd have known that to be a potential possibility at the time. They also probably didn't know whether they would be getting a fourth movie at the time, so they had to decide if they were going to do something now, or if they were going to wait for another opportunity to inject a new character into the franchise that may never have materialized. I personally prefer that this strong, leading character and organic member of the crew was written as being gay, rather than writing in a new character that joins the principal cast three movies into the series as an outsider. This allows us to connect with the character in a new way, as we re-watch the first two movies, realizing now what his family life is.

I totally get that people want to see a fully realized LGBT character in Trek. So do I, and I think that the upcoming series is going to be a great opportunity for that, where there will be ample time to develop and fully flesh out the character. I think that the movie incorporated it nicely and as best as they were able, and that the much awaited attempt at representing the gay community in Trek came from an honest place in their hearts. I don't think that we should be in the least way upset with the Kelvin universe incorporation of an LGBT element through Sulu :)

Wellp, the movie i saw had sulu's husband but no kiss, so it could have been played off as a blood relative taking care of demora.

I bet this controveray was caused to gauge the reaction of a gay character in discovery or the next film, who would know if they had kept quiet and just waved it off as family of blood relation?