Sulu, “Star Trek” and queer sci-fi: LGBT diversity has been there all along—now it’s gone mainstream; Salon, 7/12/16

Scott Eric Kaufman, Salon; Sulu, “Star Trek” and queer sci-fi: LGBT diversity has been there all along—now it’s gone mainstream:

"Which is, of course, the most significant issue — how to represent historically underrepresented communities, especially when doing so within the confines of a franchise that, however progressive it was when originally produced, was still originally produced in America during the 1960s. Should members of the LGBTQ community be treated as deviations from the “norm” who require acceptance, or simply as people whose sexuality or gender identification is a fundamental, if incidental, fact of who they are?

Roberts clearly argues that it should be the latter, whereas Takei believes that the character of Sulu will be fundamentally altered — an “unfortunate” revision of his original conception — if he happens to homosexual in the new film. In this respect, Takei is out of step with how science fiction has evolved since Roddenberry first envisioned life aboard the Starship Enterprise, at least inasmuch as straightness is no longer considered the default among characters whose sexuality isn’t a central feature of the narrative."

John Cho Appears in Popular Movie Posters to Address Lack of Diversity in Hollywood; Ad Week, 5/13/16

Katie Richards, Ad Week; John Cho Appears in Popular Movie Posters to Address Lack of Diversity in Hollywood:

"Yu took a number of big movies from the past year and a few highly anticipated ones for 2016 and replaced faces of lead characters with Cho's to address the serious lack of diversity in Hollywood.

Chris Evans as Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron suddenly becomes John Cho. Matt Damon in The Martian, Daniel Craig in Spectre, Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys, all replaced with Cho's face. Yu went with Cho because the actor is one of the most well-known Asian-American actors in Hollywood and, with a starring role in the Harold & Kumar franchise and a role in Star Trek, Cho "has both the presence and the bankable talent to build a tent pole around," Yu said."