Making Lt. Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) gay in Star Trek Beyond — the first clearly LGBT main character in Trek's 50-year history — recently became somewhat controversial after George Takei, who originated the role, called the decision "really unfortunate." But when they were writing the script, Doug Jung and Simon Pegg were concerned about sparking a different kind of controversy around the character. "We really were trying to make sure that no one thought it was something that happened that made him gay," Pegg told BuzzFeed News in mid-July.

The screenwriters wanted to certify the character's sexuality as a fact and not some kind of Trek-ian anomaly, while also integrating him into the larger fabric of the Trek universe. So, they decided to give him a family. "It felt like we'd [said], like, 'Oh, here's Commodore Paris, she's the head of Yorktown and she also is a lesbian,' it would have just felt a little bit like, 'Here's the [gay] character! Look, aren't we clever!'" said Pegg.

What Pegg and Jung did not realize at the time they were writing Sulu's storyline was that the latter would have an even more integral role: Doug Jung wound up playing Sulu's husband.

"It was very off the cuff," Jung told BuzzFeed News in mid-July. Director Justin Lin had planned to shoot the character's scenes in the gleaming, modern cityscape of Dubai, which stood in for Star Trek Beyond's vast space station Yorktown. Initially, the production wanted to hire a local actor for the role. "It was one of those things that sounds like a minor thing, but it just ended up not being very easy," Jung said. An actor was eventually cast, but according to Jung, he dropped out the day before the scene was going to be shot.