News Cho’s Concerns About Sulu

[AutoAdmin]

A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

When told that Hikaru Sulu would be gay in Star Trek: Beyond, John Cho had some concerns about the decision. first of...

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[TRON JA307020]

A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

When told that Hikaru Sulu would be gay in Star Trek: Beyond, John Cho had some concerns about the decision. first of...

Continue reading...

I do understand Takei's reaction to the writers making NuSulu gay. I think that he was probably a bit insulted. He played a character straight which he felt he did well as an actor. The choice to make NuSulu gay was obviously made because Takei is gay and they hoped to somehow honor him because he(Takei) came out. I think it would have been better to make another character gay such as Chekov or better yet create a entirely new character. It just seemed weird that they would pick the Sulu character just because Takei was gay in real life.

 

[M'Sharak]

I do understand Takei's reaction to the writers making NuSulu gay. I think that he was probably a bit insulted. He played a character straight which he felt he did well as an actor. The choice to make NuSulu gay was obviously made because Takei is gay and they hoped to somehow honor him because he(Takei) came out. I think it would have been better to make another character gay such as Chekov or better yet create a entirely new character. It just seemed weird that they would pick the Sulu character just because Takei was gay in real life.

You didn't read the article. It's not even long.

 

[TRON JA307020]

You didn't read the article. It's not even long.

I read it. Takei didn't seem thrilled what they did to Sulu in the last movie. I think that Takei was a bit offended by the change in the characters sexuality because it kind of encroached on his personal life. He didn't say as much but he played Sulu straight and making Sulu gay in NuTrek will now make it seem to others that may not know TOS well that he(Takei) could have been playing the character gay. Takei is an actor and just because he is gay doesn't mean he can't play a straight character. This is only my opinion but it does make sense from an actors point of view.

 

[Jax]

There was nothing wrong in making Sulu gay and those of us who aren't scared out of our pants about such trival things didn't even bat an eye lid when we found out. Sulu was never confirmed to be Gay, Bi or Straight in the TOS era so I don't see any retooling of the character from its original roots.

 

[TRON JA307020]

There was nothing wrong in making Sulu gay and those of us who aren't scared out of our pants about such trival things didn't even bat an eye lid when we found out. Sulu was never confirmed to be Gay, Bi or Straight in the TOS era so I don't see any retooling of the character from its original roots.

Sulu wasn't gay in TOS or the TOS movies and Takei has verified that.

 

[Kemaiku]

Different universe, doesn't matter.

 

[Jax]

Sulu wasn't gay in TOS or the TOS movies and Takei has verified that.

He didn't write the character and maybe Sulu was bi-sexual? TOS never mentioned his sexual preferences in the show or movies. Also who cares at the end of the day, in this version of Star Trek he is Gay. We all know why Sulu or any character during the 60's or up to the 6th movie in the early 90's were never written as openly gay from TOS era...Homophobia.

So lets not pretend if was for any other reason.

 

[TRON JA307020]

He didn't write the character and maybe Sulu was bi-sexual? TOS never mentioned his sexual preferences in the show or movies. Also who cares at the end of the day, in this version of Star Trek he is Gay. We all know why Sulu or any character during the 60's or up to the 6th movie in the early 90's were never written as openly gay from TOS era...Homophobia.

So lets not pretend if was for any other reason.

Below clip that was added to the extended version. It doesn't negate Sulu being bisexual but its clear he likes women.

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[Jax]

Deleted Scenes are not canon. Sulu was probably heterosexual of course but that's only because of the narrow minded homophobic culture that was prevalent back then. We don't need to be constraint by such thoughts anymore.

 

[Kemaiku]

Deltans also affect the brain chemistry of other species, as the film goes to some length to point out.

 

[mos6507]

Deltans also affect the brain chemistry of other species, as the film goes to some length to point out.

Meaning...they can turn a gay man straight? Nice messaging, then. The christian right should petition for the insertion of the scene into all future blu-rays.

This article shows that Cho sides with Takei's stance on this but he's ultimately a company guy so he kept his mouth shut during the bru-ha-ha. Make of that what you will but it does pierce the veil of team Kelvinverse being a united front.

 

[Kemaiku]

Meaning...they can turn a gay man straight?

Various novels have tried to explain it away as it basically causing an automatic arousal in males regardless and that only Deltan males and some other species can resist it outright. A genetic trait that won't go away since now Delta has become a hypersexualised planet were everything revolves around it.

They literally don't have a choice, but it affects some more than others seemingly at random, and can be "turned up" a notch by the Deltan deliberately.

So yeah, Deltans sound pretty creepy.

 

[Shikarnov]

There is way too much sensitivity to this topic from all involved.

The Abrams team decided it was "important" to have main character be gay. They did it the right way, but it says something that they felt like they had to do it at all -- and it says how far we have to go as a society that we're STILL discussing it.

I don't know what Cho's beef is, but given that Takei is gay himself, I can see how he'd be a little miffed about his character being turned into Star Trek's token homosexual. But that said, it wasn't over the top and was handled very tastefully. Get over yourself.

I think we should all just just move on. There's nothing to see here. NuSulu's gay. Okay. Whoop dee doo. I find the typography on Kelvin universe ships more worthy of discussion.

 

[Kemaiku]

The Enterprise A has the little red outline on her penant, happy now?

 

[TRON JA307020]

There is way too much sensitivity to this topic from all involved.

The Abrams team decided it was "important" to have main character be gay. They did it the right way, but it says something that they felt like they had to do it at all -- and it says how far we have to go as a society that we're STILL discussing it.

I don't know what Cho's beef is, but given that Takei is gay himself, I can see how he'd be a little miffed about his character being turned into Star Trek's token homosexual. But that said, it wasn't over the top and was handled very tastefully. Get over yourself.

I think we should all just just move on. There's nothing to see here. NuSulu's gay. Okay. Whoop dee doo. I find the typography on Kelvin universe ships more worthy of discussion.

I agree with some of what you state. Takei knows why they made the character he played for so long gay. Its because he is gay in his real life nothing more. They probably wanted to honor him but I think Takei took offense that they chose to make Sulu gay on the sole fact that he(Takei) is gay. It wasn't over the top but it just seems like they were trying to hard to be diverse. It didn't come off naturally because the character of Sulu is one of the originals. They would have been better off to make a new original character gay because it would have fulfilled the diverse quota they wanted and may have given us a new character to watch in subsequent movies. I guess making Sulu gay gave them a bit more media attention before the movie premiered and may have helped ticket sales but it smacked of sensationalism to me and not very honest.

 

[M'Sharak]

I don't know what Cho's beef is...

That's the thing, though: he really hasn't got a beef.

But Cho was relieved by the reception to the movie. “It doesn’t feel like a bombshell at all, which is, I think, hopefully where we’re going as a planet and as a species. I think if we had made a thing out of it in the way it was filmed, that in ten years we’d look back and it would feel anachronistic and out of time. Now, the movie can age well and hopefully ten years from now, this sort of thing is common in film and in society.”

He had some concerns initially, but was ultimately pleased with the way it was presented in the movie.

And it's on that aspect that this thread ought to be focusing. If anyone insists upon making this all a rehash of the months-ago argument about whether the character of Sulu ought to have been gay at all, then this will probably wind up being a pretty short thread.

But that'll be up to all of you posting in it. Your call.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Various novels have tried to explain it away as it basically causing an automatic arousal in males regardless and that only Deltan males and some other species can resist it outright. A genetic trait that won't go away since now Delta has become a hypersexualised planet were everything revolves around it.

They literally don't have a choice, but it affects some more than others seemingly at random, and can be "turned up" a notch by the Deltan deliberately.

So yeah, Deltans sound pretty creepy.

But a gay man would not be affected. The heterosexual man cannot resist.

 

[starburst]

So if we assume that both versions of Sulu share the same sexuality and Prime maybe showed interest in a handful of women through TOS and the movies (but nothing concrete) and Kelvin has a husband... Simply consider him Bisexual and in the original timeline we only saw him express interest in women on screen. Issue solved.

 

[Tenacity]

Or Sulu was flaming hetero in the prime and dye in the wool homosexual in the Abrams.