“I’m delighted that there’s a gay character,” Takei tells The Hollywood Reporter, especially given that he once campaigned for creator Gene Roddenberry to add one. “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”
Hikaru Sulu, known only as “Mister Sulu” in the 1960s television series, is the Asian helmsman aboard the Starship Enterprise in the fabled franchise. Takei played Sulu for three decades on television and in film, from 1966 through 1996, as a steady, surefire pilot given to fanciful swashbuckling and swordsplay when influenced.
And, Takei told The Hollywood Reporter, he has always played him straight. That, he said, is what Roddenberry wanted.
“He was a strong supporter of LGBT equality,” recalls Takei, now 79. “But he said he has been pushing the envelope and walking a very tight rope — and if he pushed too hard, the show would not be on the air.”
And that audience has kept the franchise alive, even after the original series’ cancellation and some flops at the box office.
Now, to commemorate its 50th year, director Justin Lin is at the helm of the 13th “Star Trek” movie starring John Cho as Sulu, debuting in the U.S. July 22. Sulu is seen with a male spouse, and together they are raising a daughter. Cho broke the news to an Australian newspaper in advance of the world premiere down under.
That, reports THR, was the brainchild of Lin and actor and writer Simon Pegg. Their intent was to pay homage to Takei, as an icon of LGBT activism and Trek lore.
Although Lin and Pegg, who plays Scotty in the new films, reportedly presumed Takei would be delighted, the veteran of stage and screen said he made it very clear to both Lin and Cho, this was not what he wanted.
“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,” said Takei.
Months later, he was disappointed to learn his pleas had fallen on deaf ears. “I really tried to work with these people when at long last the issue of gay equality was going to be addressed,” Takei told THR.
Instead, he is setting course for his own new adventures. Following a well-received run of his World War II drama, Allegiance, on Broadway, Takei is hoping to score a part playing Sulu as an aging admiral — or an alien, he said, eager to work again — in the new “Star Trek” series set to debut in 2017.
