Star Trek Beyond's Hikaru Sulu to be first openly gay character in franchise in ‘nod’ to George Takei

Making history: Hikaru Sulu, played by John Cho, will be the first openly gay Star Trek character
Paramount Pictures
Jennifer Ruby8 July 2016
The Weekender

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Star Trek character Hikaru Sulu, played by John Cho, will be openly gay in the new film.

In a nod to George Takei, who played him in the original TV series, Sulu will be the first openly LGBT character in the sci-fi franchise.

Speaking to Australia’s Herald Sun, Cho said that the decision was made by director Justin Lin and screenwriter Simon Pegg.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicise one’s personal orientation,” he said.

Takei, who is now a prominent campaigner for LGBT rights, has spoken out about his fear of coming out earlier on in his career.

Last year he told News Corp: “If I wanted to work as an actor I had to keep it a secret.

“Back then I couldn’t marry a white person — that was against the law here, miscegenation. But now I am married to a white dude so we have changed.”

Inter-racial and inter-species relationships have been depicted on Star Trek in the past and it was the first American TV show to air an inter-racial kiss on screen back in 1968.

J.J Abrams, who directed the first film in the rebooted franchise in 2009, said that he was keen to introduce an LGBT character, although it never happened.

In 2011 he said that he was “frankly shocked that in the history of Star Trek there have never been gay characters in all the series”.

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