Out actor Wilson Cruz says Star
Trek: Discovery fans should be given “permission to be upset”
by the show's shocking twist involving his character.
On the series, Cruz plays medical
officer Dr. Hugh Culber, who is involved in a romantic relationship
with starfleet officer Lt. Paul Stamets (played by out actor Anthony
Rapp), an expert on fungus. The actors made Star Trek history
in November when their characters on the CBS All Access show shared
the television franchise's first male gay kiss.
In the show's fall finale, Stamets
kisses Culber and promises to take him on a romantic date before he
enters a chamber to navigate the ship's spore drive in an effort to
escape the advancing Klingons. Culber suspects the jump might kill
his lover.
When the show returned this week,
[spoiler alert] it was Culber whose life ended as he was brutally
murdered by Lt. Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif).
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly,
Cruz called the murder of a gay character a “disappointing moment”
but insisted that “many possibilities” remain.
“I would be upset if I was watching,
and I think we need to give people permission to be upset. It’s
upsetting. It’s a disappointing moment,” Cruz said.
“I’m nervous because we are all
aware of this trope throughout television which we continue to see
LGBT characters, characters of color, and women killed off in very
dismissive ways, and I want people to know that this is not that.”
“This is a chapter of this epic love
story of these two characters. And this is science fiction. This is
Star Trek. There are many possibilities,” he said.
“I'll be back,” Cruz
added. “What I can say is that I've been assured that this is
a long, epic story, and I know where it's going and I'm excited about
telling that story.”