As much as we know about the characters in the Star Trek universe, most of our information is limited to what happens on board starships. It turns out there's a lot about their personal lives that we just didn't know. The newest piece of interesting, but intentionally unimportant information is that the rebooted version of Hikaru Sulu, as played by John Cho, is gay.
The rebooted timeline currently running in the Star Trek universe deals a bit more with the personal lives of the crew of the Enterprise than the original series or films ever did. Spock and Uhura have a thing. Kirk has daddy issues. These aren't the sorts of things they dealt with in the 1960s. Australia's Herald Sun is reporting that in an interview with John Cho, the actor announced that we will all learn in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond something new about Sulu. While we knew the character would have a daughter (he's got her picture on his control console), it turns out Sulu has that daughter with a same-sex partner. While this will be revealed in some way in the film (exactly how is not clear), it's apparently not done in any specific way to draw attention to it. It's just a thing, no big deal. Cho told the Herald Sun he really liked how the film handled it.
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 orientations
Of course, the decision to make John Cho's version of Sulu gay is no accident. From what the Herald Sun reports, Star Trek Beyond writer (and co-star) Simon Pegg put it in the script as a nod to the original Sulu, George Takei. It's a nice gesture. While it's a tribute to the original actor that his character can be out in the new film, while the actor was not able to be during the original run of Star Trek, at the same time, not making "a big thing" out of it is a very Star Trek thing to do. The series has always been about looking forward toward a positive view of humanity's future, where things like this simply aren't a big deal. Here's an image of John Cho with the picture of the daughter that will be in the film, which he showed off on Entertainment Tonight, during which time, he teased another reveal to come. Could his marital situation be what he was referring to then?
What do you think about this revelation about Sulu? Is it a fitting tribute to George Takei and the proper direction for a member of the Enterprise crew? Let us know what ou think in the comments.
