Paramount Pictures

"I have huge love and respect for George Takei, his heart, courage and humour are an inspiration," said Pegg in the statement (which you can read in full at the bottom of this post). "However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him."

“He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now," Pegg continued. "We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the 'gay character,' rather than simply for who they are, and isn't that tokenism?"

According to Pegg, the filmmaking team wanted their LGBT character to be someone the audience already knew "as a human being," so that his sexuality would not be the character's "defining characteristic."

Pegg added that he believed Roddenberry would have "explored Sulu's sexuality with George" during the run of the original series from 1966 to 1969, had the culture at the time been "open minded enough" to accept it.

But Pegg also noted that, regardless of Roddenberry's intentions, Star Trek Beyond is part of an alternative timeline started by 2009's Star Trek directed by J.J. Abrams — pointing to the sci-fi conceit that the Sulu played by Takei could still be heterosexual. "Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline," said Pegg. "I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere."