New Sulu Revealed as Gay, Called Unfortunate By Original Sulu (Updated)

In an interview promoting Star Trek Beyond in Australia, John Cho revealed to the Herald Sun that his character of Sulu is gay. Cho said “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". The previous movie revealed the character had a daughter in a brief scene so wouldn't be surprised if handled in a similar blink or you will miss it manner. The choice to make the character gay was made by Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin as a nod of respect to George Takai who originated the character of Sulu. However it seems the effort somewhat backfired as the actor was not pleased. Takai told The Hollywood Reporter, "I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

Takei first learned of Sulu's recent same-sex leanings last year, when Cho called him to reveal the big news. Takei tried to convince him to make a new character gay instead. "I told him, 'Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted.'" (Takei had enough negative experiences inside the Hollywood closet, he says, and strongly feels a character who came of age in the 23rd century would never find his way inside one.)

Week Six To Boldly Go Charity Video

Next up to promote the Star Trek To Boldly Go charity is Zoe Saldana and John Cho. I also believe this is the last week to donate for a chance to win a chance to visit the set in Vancouver, Canada.

Cho: Reuniting Cast for Fourth Star Trek Tough

John Cho has finally said what I have suggested for years now - that after Star Trek 3, the franchise will probably have to be rebooted or recast again. In an interview to promote his new show Selfie (co-star is the stunningly gorgeous Karen Gillan), he talked about the possibility of the cast coming together after their three picture contracts end.

Zachary Quinto has said the Star Trek cast all signed up for three movies, so the next one is the end of the contract. Since those characters go on forever, do you really expect this to be the last one for your team, or for you as Sulu?
The reason I hesitate is just wondering if we could get everyone. It seems to be an all or nothing proposition. I want to say, for me, sure, let’s do another. I enjoy that group. I enjoy what Star Trek films do in general and say in general. And I will say one of the pleasures of having been in Star Trek movies has been seeing what effect they have in society, like astronauts saying, “I kind of got into this line of work because my imagination was sparked from watching ‘Star Trek.’” That is very cool. What I’m trying to say is, I just stand by that product. Getting a whole cast together, that’s tough.

I understand, if one of the cast is unavailable, there’s no point having most of you and recasting one role.
I would have to think about that. I guess you’d have to see when you got there, but I would like to keep it all together.

Sulu and Marcus Characters Videos, 4 German TV Spots for STID

Today brings us six new videos to promote Star Trek Into Darkness. The first two are brief character profiles of Sulu (John Cho) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) as the actors and JJ Abrams comment on the characters. After that are four 10 second long German TV spots that have a few quick new scenes.

Into Darkness Cast Discuss Movie at CinemaCon

While at CinemaCon being held in Las Vegas, various cast members of Star Trek Into Darkness and writer Damon Lindelof discussed the film before and after an 18 minute preview of the film. Highlights from the videos are below which can be found here here. In a separate video, John Cho (Sulu) discussed the film with Collider. You can find that video here.

Highlights:
- Zachary Quinto: "It is an erroneous notion that [Spock] doesn’t have an emotional life. "Spock’s journey in this film is learning how to honor that emotional life."
- Chris Pine on Kirk: "He is a man who has to learn to censor himself at times and our bad guy–John Harrison–basically levels this mirror in front of Kirk in which he sees all of his vulnerabilities and his fallibility and everything that is wrong with the way he leads his men and women into battle–and he brings him to his knees."

Cast Continue Sequel Talk

As summarized by TrekMovie, three cast members from Star Trek have recently commented about their expectations for the upcoming sequel.

Karl Urban
Q: What do you think of evolution of your character is going to be like in the next “Star Trek”?
Urban: I have no idea. I just know it’s going to be good. I’m really looking forward to getting on board that one and I feel now we’ve introduced all these great characters. It’s going to be really interesting to see where we can take it.

Q: Have you made any requests to the writers about where you want your character to go?
Urban: No, I think that they’re geniuses and you should just let them do what they do. I have officially thrown a genius label on them. I’ve got full faith that whatever they come up with is going to equal and surpass the first installment.

Zoe Saldana

Zoe is hoping to make these films before she does “Star Trek 2.” “Within a month, we’ll have specific filming dates for ‘Star Trek 2,’ ” she revealed. “So we have to do whatever we have to do before the Enterprise comes calling.”

John Cho

I don’t think they’ve written anything yet, some of our writers are on other projects right now, so I don’t think any decisions have been made.

"Yehya Show" at Star Trek DVD Party

As part of the promtion for last week's release of Star Trek on home video, the Jimmy Kimmel Show sent its correspondent Yehya to cover the event. The result is a serious of amusing questions for JJ Abrams, John Cho and Zachary Quinto. It is pretty hilarious and all handle it a lot better then I think most would in similar circumstances as they just roll with the absurdity of the situation. (via TrekMovie)

Star Trek Cast Talk Sequel Character Development

TrekMovie.com has posted additional videos with various members of the cast of Star Trek as they discuss their ideas for what they would like to see in the sequel. The first video is with Leonard Nimoy (Spock). He believes it is unlikely he will be in the next movie as he served his role of bridging the old with the new and that to his knowledge Shatner has continued to avoid watching the movie. The second video is with John Cho (Sulu), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (McCoy), Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Bruce Greenwood (Pike). Sulu wants to "turn Sulu's battle internal", Zoe wants the opposite with Uhura kicking some butt, Quinto wants more explorations of Spock's dual heritage, Urban wants to evolve McCoy further as the triumvirate emerges, and Greenwood wants to Pike to be on the Enterprise and avoid the chair.

Leonard Nimoy


Cho, Saldana, Quinto, Urban & Greenwood

Yep, More Interviews

The campaign continues to get you to see Star Trek. Click the links for the full interviews, just posting a few snippets.

Star Trek Movie Magazine - click the link for excepts of interviews with the cast for the magazine.

JJ Abrams (Director)

TrekMovie: You talk about how people do not need to know a lot to enjoy this film. One thing that I do think may be an issue and have some people at least asking the question: What was Nero doing for 25 years? Talk me through the decision to remove that. The one thing I would like to see in this film was more Nero.
Abrams: Well you are not wrong. Not only would it have been nice, but I thought it was nice to have that stuff in there. But I don’t think the majority of the audience has the patience and the willingness to do the kind of work that deep-routed fans of genre, and certainly of Trek, are willing to do and in fact live to do. I have found on Lost and on Fringe that the casual viewer may be confounded by a plot turn that I love. What I love about this is not just mystery, but sometimes these diversions that take you into a really weird place, then kind of get back on track and continue. That sequence took the audience off track into a whole new place that I thought was really cool, really weird, beautifully designed and had great mood. I loved the visual effects and the whole thing. It broke my heart to cut it. But when we showed the movie to the audience with that sequence it really threw them. Because we had a bad guy who is suddenly imprisoned by other bad guys. You didn’t know who was who. There was exposition that I really enjoyed, that people felt was confusing and distracting. And it threw the audience off and took them on this diversion and the truth is, not unlike Richard Donner’s Superman, the movie really begins in earnest about half an hour into the movie, when in that film Christopher Reeve is flying away from the Fortress of Solitude as Superman. Everything that preceded it was critical to emotionally connect to the story, but now the story begins. In our movie it just felt like a five minute diversion that people were like ‘what?’

Anton Yelchin (Chekov)

TrekMovie: How much of a discussion with JJ was there on the level of genuine ‘Russian-ness’ to put into it?
Yelchin: I wanted it to be close to the Chekov accent, I guess that is where our opinions differ. I have no problem doing a real Russian accent, but that wouldn’t be Chekov to me. The interesting thing about it is that his accent is a cold-war stereotype of a Russian person. And when I watched the series and the films, that is what I found interesting about it. And I adjusted it, it is not entirely the same, but Walter [Koenig] came on set and was like "that sounds like me." And that is what was fun for me. As a person familiar with a Russian accent, and someone with Russian roots who can speak Russian and knows what Russian people sound like, it was fun to purposefully mess around with the Russian accent — to purposefully change what I thought a Russian accent was to suit that stereotype they had in the sixties.

TrekMovie: You spent a lot of time at your console on the bridge and the console in the transporter room. Did any one of the set designers ever tell you ‘this button does this, and that button does that’? So when Pike issues an order, you know what button to push?
Yelchin: Me and John Cho kind of sat down the first day and talked to JJ said that because this is going to become the way for us to do things, we need to figure out what is what. We really kind of stuck to doing the same things over and over again. We also got these neat little space pens, like when I come up with the solution. No one sat us down so it was up to us and John and I really coordinated what we were doing to make sure it looks legitimate.

John Cho on Jimmy Kimmel 5/7 - Thanks to Brian for the link

Even More Trek Interviews

More interviews from the Trek cast as they make the TV and print rounds.

Zoe Saldana on Jimmy Kimmel 5/6/09


John Cho on Jay Leno on 5/6/09


Abrams on Charlie Rose


Pine and Quinto


Abrams on Good Day New York

Bruce Greenwood - click link for complete interview

TrekMovie: What is interesting about your character is that even though it was originated by another actor, there was only the one episode. So did you find it was a little easier for you compared to the other guys, as you had a lot more freedom to work with?
Greenwood: There is less of Hunter’s Pike in the history, but having said that, and you know this better than anybody, once part of Star Trek, it is indelible. Whatever imprint you make can’t be undone. I went back and looked at Pikes dilemma as face by Hunter and then I realized it is very different than the dilemma that my Pike faces. Having said that, they are both tremendously passionate people. The risk I was taking was with Kirk and not with my own future per se.

TrekMovie: Fair enough. There is one decision he makes in the film that still has me scratching my head and this is probably a question for Bob [Orci], but when Pike makes Kirk first officer and Spock is like ‘are you joking?’ Did you ask Bob or JJ why is he doing this? Did it make sense to you?
Greenwood: It made sense to me. What I intuit about Kirk’s ability to command can hardly be put into words. It is just that sense that the kid is incredibly rough and has a terrible bedside manner and can be abusive as with the scenario. I was not happy with the scenario [Kobayashi Maru]. We shot something in which I said to him as we are walking away after we get the emergency call, we shot something where I say "cheating is not winning." I had a long conversation with JJ About that and because I felt it was important for Pike to let Kirk know that this was not evidence of a perfect mind — this was not particularly impressive. On a technical level yes, but in terms of the lesson that he was meant to learn, it was more like what Spock says. Having said that, he has a sense of what it is going to take to prevail that is informed by his gene pool.

Simon Pegg gives Scotty a bio

Montgomery Scott was born on March 3rd 2222, in Linlithgow, West Lothian. His parents eventually moved him and his brother Robert to Aberdeen, where his sister Clara was born. An exceptional student Scotty (or Mad Monty as his friends called him) was advanced forward several years in the educational system, meaning his intellectual peers were all at University age, whilst he was a mere 14. As a result, he spent much of his time crawling the pubs of Aberdeen with is friends, drinking and getting into fights about thermodynamics and quantum mechanics with men twice his size. At the age of 16, he came to the attention of professors at the Advanced Relativistic Physics Department at Glasgow University, after disproving the Prerera Theory (regarding photon torpedo detonation) and was transferred to study there for a year (where he really picked up the accent) before being accepted to Starfleet Academy on a scholarship. However he deferred his placement in favor of practical experience in space, working aboard mining ships and freighters, in particular the USS Deirdre, where he fell in love with engineering. Eventually he attended Starfleet and finished top of his graduating year, although the honor was later stripped due to disciplinary action taken against him due to “highly speculative and dangerous experiments with matter transfer”.

Thanks to Brian for the Zoe and Cho links, and TrekMovie.com for the rest.

More Cast Interviews

The Star Trek cast is making the rounds to fill theatre seats for tomorrow's night opening of the movie. Below are snippets from each but click the links to read the whole thing.

Zachary Quinto - Two video clips from ABC. The first clip is an interview were Quinto discusses the movie, becoming Spock, and Trek tradition. After a commercial break, the second clip airs wtih Quinto talking about what would be on Spock's iPod (classic rock and Bob Dylan). Thanks to Brian for the link and info.

Karl Urban (Leonard "Bones" McCoy)

Did you and JJ sit down and decide to go that route with Bones –to make him the one that would be the closest to the original?
Urban: No, actually. We never really had that conversation. As a long-term fan I felt it was important to see some semblance of continuity to the wonderful work Mr. Kelley had done. And really, to me, it is about the character’s attitudes. And there is a certain specific way that the character of McCoy reacts in certain situations and I really could only do my version of what that could be. There were certain character traits that were keys for me. Finding a voice was important. I remember JJ coming up to me one day and he says "what you are doing is wonderful, it is not DeForest Kelley, but it is something that is Bones, but it’s different, and keep on doing what you are doing." I had a lot of fun working on this character. I got to do and say some fun things. I am just very grateful that the character has gone down well thus far. I look forward, if I get the opportunity, to continue to develop it in further installments..

TrekMovie: As a fan. what was your biggest fanboyish moment in making this movie?
Urban: I think it was meeting Leonard Nimoy and being on set the very first day that he became Spock again, the first time in seventeen years. to be this close, as I am to you, to an actor and character of such iconic status who you have enjoyed and has been part of your childhood — to be that close to him was such surreal moment. To hear him deliver those lines in that Spock cadence — I’ll never forget it. I feel very privileged to be part of it and blessed that he was part of our film.

John Cho (Hikaru Sulu)

TrekMovie: Once you got the script, what was it like for you, since Sulu is a little different than he was in the show and has a lot of action. Were you nervous about that or excited?
Cho: A little bit of both. I was thrilled he was out of his chair and getting into the mix. If I had one complaint about the old show, as an Asian-American, I wanted to see Sulu get involved a little more and kick some booty. And this is it, this is happening. I can’t believe I am fulfilling my own personal dream and having Sulu shaking it. And secondly, I was like ‘I have never done this before’, I have never done action before so it was a completely different way of working for me, where I led with my body. Strangely, that stunt work we did a couple of months prior informed everything else. I was surprised by that. That the way my body changed as a result of doing all that training, kind of made me a different person. I was like ‘I like this, I am going with this’ it was a little like an Academy experience for us. It informed how I sat in the chair, how I attacked every line. It was surprisingly useful.

TrekMovie: You talk about getting back into the chair. You and Anton [Yelchin] still do a lot of ‘in the chair’ work in this movie. So you and he worked out some system so you know what does what at that consoles? Like you guys have figured out a system where you know what to do if Kirk says ‘fire the photon torpedoes’?
Cho: Not precisely, but vaguely, yeah. We made decisions and it was building from scratch. I went in there and I called JJ over and I was looking at the set and I said ‘what is the language?’ I realized we are setting something here, we have got to feel confident going forward. The set was an in interesting mixture of the digital vibe of the original show, and kind of the — I hate to bring this up — but the analog vibe of Star Wars. The bumpiness and used feel and the real dials. It was funny, Star Trek was such a smooth sleek view of the future and how do you combine that. Do you depress things? We could have gone in a bunch of ways. We relied on the touch screen more than anything else.

Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura)

TrekMovie: You mention kissing aliens, so I can’t help but bring up something. I would say as a Trekkie it was the most surprising thing about this film. Were you nervous about the love connection with Spock and tell me how you prepared for it.
Saldana: I thought JJ [Abrams] was out of his mind when he and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman decided to take that route. My concerns was what effect it was going to have on the fan community and whether or not it was going to go according to what they had known for so long. But at the same time there was no way to disprove that something like that had taken place before on the Enterprise. So after I gave myself that permission I allowed myself to go back to the script and read the story and focus on these characters and their journey and it made perfect sense to me. He is half human, half Vulcan, at some point if he was only going to be a Vulcan man, then why even make him half human. You are constantly waiting for him to break. It is that battle that makes Spock who he is and connects Spock to the beautiful friendship he has with Kirk and keeps him connected on a sensitive level when it comes to life. And I felt Uhura was a very commanding and — Nichelle [Nichol]’s Uhura was just so sexy and she always had things together and she had a swagger to her that was absolutely sensuous but confident. And she had already gotten there. I couldn’t necessarily start here there because there would be no journey for her. She was definitely very determined and a very strong woman and really wanted to be on that Enterprise and be the xenolinguistics expert since she was like five years old. So who else but Spock for her to look up to and have an infatuation with, more than Kirk.

Zachary Quinto (Spock)

TrekMovie: I know that you have tried to make this role your own, as directed by JJ and as Leonard [Nimoy] understood. But what would you say is the most different about your interpretation of Spock, and on the other hand what would you say was the most the same?
Quinto: I will take the second part first. I think there are a number of characteristics of Spock that are inextricable from who he is and what his heritage is and what his cultural history is. There is a certain way he carries himself and a certain way that he speaks and way that he relates that is defined ultimately by Leonard, but more than that, by the history of the mythology of the character. For me that was the part of the character that was most similar to the version that Leonard played. I think the versions that were different is that that he is much less at ease about his duality. He is much more in conflict internally and I think he has much less control over the stirrings of his human emotion, and that allowed me a little bit more room to play with then many Leonard felt he had with his experience with the character.

TrekMovie: How did you prepare to literally go where no Spock has gone before? It is very new territory.
Quinto: [laughed] It is new territory, but I think it is very important to our movie. On one hand, I think it infuses the story with a certain levity and a certain humor between Kirk and Spock and this sort of rivalry. Between Kirk and Uhura there is this sort of cat and mouse thing going on. And that is the source of a lot of laughs for me. I think between Spock and Uhura it actually provides a sort of depth and complexity to these characters and relationships that adds a kind of value to this movie and sets it apart from what has come before it. Uhura represents a canvas onto which Spock is able to project the emotions he cannot express. To that end I think it is a valuable device and I think it is well laid in to the evolution of this story and I hope that it is not too disruptive to the die-hard Trek canon fanatics.

Eric Bana (Nero)

Let's talk about your character, Nero. He has such a tragic back story. Did you ever feel like a tragic hero?
That's a good question. Tragic hero? I guess to a degree. I never really saw him as a villain, even though he sort of performs that function for the drama of the story. To me, yeah, he was Nero, leader of the Romulans who has been wronged and is seeking revenge, and that's kind of how I see him so I think. Yeah, I like your description.

I'm curious about your movements in character. You're very aggressive and strong, did you come up with any of those reactions and jumps yourself or was it all planned out?
Some of them were a bit spur of the moment. It was a pretty intense character. I passed out, I think, once during one of the takes, I got so carried away. Lost about twenty seconds, down on the floor, and got up, and the camera was still rolling and it was like, "I guess I just continue now." Um yeah. It was pretty crazy.

John Cho Talks Sulu

John Cho Talked with Sci-Fi Wire about what he is bringing to the role of Hikaru Sulu in the new Star Trek movie.

George's Sulu was a veteran, and he was always in control of the ship," Cho told reporters in a group interview in Los Angeles last week. "And ... since this is his first mission, he's thrust into the position of helmsman by accident, and all of these things are happening. ... He's not supposed to be on the ship; he's not supposed to be doing all this stuff. So ... I wanted this Sulu to be a little bit more innocent, a little bit younger and a little bit more caught off guard by all of this stuff. And I felt like it would be a nice way to begin that arc, since we're going back in time."

"It's probably more due to George Takei than Sulu [the character], but I thought, 'George is such a iconic personality,'" Cho said. "You know, he's around, and he's very famous, and I just felt it best not to imitate him. One, I do not have the vocal cords. They do not do that voice. They don't do that sound. I think there's exactly one person in the world that can do that voice. So I just felt that that would be a bad idea for me, and it would just scream imitation."

Five More Cast Images

EW has posted five more images to go with the previousily released 9 shots from Star Trek. They are essentially "hero" shots of the James T Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho) and Nero (Eric Bana).

John Cho Talks Star Trek

John Cho (Sulu) briefly discussed Star Trek XI with CNN. He is currently starting the promotion for Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Sadly, as always with Abrams films, the cone of silence remains firmly in place.

The full article is here.

Highlights:
- This is his last week of shooting for Star Trek.
- In regards to joining the Star Trek lexicon, "So it is daunting, it's scary. Frankly, I'm not used to this kind of heat."
- About the film, "But it's been going great, what can I say except that it's really thrilling. There are a few dreams that you have when you're a little boy: It's cowboys and Indians, it's being on a spaceship. This is one of the great fantasies of my life."

John Choas Sulu

The Hollywood Reporter says that John Cho (Harld and Kumar) has been cast as young Sulu for Star Trek XI. Cho joins Pegg and various others in casting for the role with I think Kirk being the only one yet not officially cast. I like Cho the actor. Not sure what I think of the casting as seen enough to know he has a great deal of potential acting wise. Time will tell. (source)