10 Star Trek Twists That The Actors Hated
9. Sulu Is Gay - George Takei
In Star Trek Beyond, Hikaru Sulu from the Kelvin timeline is revealed to be LGBT, who has a male partner and a daughter on Starbase Yorktown. This was meant as a tribute to George Takei, the original Sulu who was and remains an openly gay man and LGBT activist. This in-universe nod was a representation of the real life man, though Takei himself felt that it was the wrong decision.
When the news broke that Sulu would be revealed as gay in the film, Takei said that, while he was glad there was a gay character in the film, changing Sulu in that way was a twisting of Gene Roddenberry's vision, into which he put much thought. He felt it was very unfortunate.
The argument stems from the fact that Spock's travel back in time, and creation of the Kelvin universe, shouldn't have affected something like the sexuality of a character, as Sulu in the Prime Timeline was, in Takei's view, a straight man. There are several examples of him attempting to woo a female crewman, and his daughter Demora appears in Star Trek: Generations. Writer and Actor Simon Pegg 'respectfully' disagreed with him, stating that he believed Roddenberry's decision to make the main cast straight was more to do with the limitations of the period, rather than an artistic decision.