John Cho to play Sulu

Harry Mok
October 12, 2007

Yes, I am a Star Trek fan. I'll admit it publicly (stop giggling). So, I was curious as to who would be chosen to take the part George Takei originated. I would imagine every male Asian actor in Hollywood was fishing for the part.

The plot for the movie is a closely held secret, but it will be a prequel revolving around the early days of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Star Trek crew.

I hope they portray the early Capt. Sulu as a strong leader he eventually becomes rather than the more meek, sidekick-type of Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) from the Star Trek: Voyager TV series.

Look for Cho as well in Harold and Kumar 2, maybe my second most anticipated movie of 2008.

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Comments

Comments

Fancast Gal wrote on Sat, 04/19/2008 - 4:15pm
I am a huge fan of John Cho and the Harold and Kumar movies! He recently did a very interesting interview on Fancast:http://bigpicture.fancast.com/2008/04/interview_john_cho_speaks_on_t.html
Junkie wrote on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 1:01pm
Hmm... Hikaru Sulu... Kaito Nakamura... John Cho... All stoners... k! Works for me! I think he'll be good! It's going to be great fun. I don't know if I can keep a straight face looking at him.
bjr wrote on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 1:12pm
hi harry,trekkie to trekkie, i think garrett wang/ensign kim and the entire voyager series happened in a post-TNG/post-DS9 ST franchise creative downswing (let's not even talk about what crap ST:enterprise was).that said, i think the voyager characters were pretty much squandered or initially ill-conceived. so yes, harry kim was a major disappointment (i'm going to be writing about this for a multi-ethnicity journal).also though i'm not sure how i feel about ST writers going retro/ret-con, rather than forward. still i'm thinking the writers know they have some serious expectations to meet.
Harry wrote on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 1:20pm
Yes, this whole retro thing has killed the franchise, as evidenced by Enterprise.But with J.J. Abrahms (Lost, Alias) in charge, maybe he can jazz things up.
claire wrote on Sun, 10/14/2007 - 12:43am
oh, barb, you break my heart! voyager was my favorite! the ship was always led by a triumvirate of strong wimmin, two of whom, in the latter half of the series, were multiracial!plus, harry kim started out poopy, agreed, but developed into more of a leader--and a lover--in the later part of the series. plus, he was the only main asian xtr in TNG serieseseses (i don't count "enterprise." ugh.but i agree that the retro thing stinks. harry, i didn't know abrams was heading it up. it could go either way with him, but at least it'll be fun to see.i'm a little torn, however, about sulu being played by a koream, as i was about a chi-am playing harry kim. all look same!
das bullocks wrote on Mon, 10/15/2007 - 10:12am
Nothing against John Cho, but I wish they cast something else...but it could have been worse...I was half expecting the character be 'reimagined' as a chick and we'd get Lucy Liu...