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John Cho used to feel a lot more upbeat about the future that awaits when we finally get that spaceflight thing down, but these days… well, things seem a little more Spike-y for him, he admits.

At Rose City Comic Con 2024, the actor — who’s played both upright Starfleet officer Hikaru Sulu and space-faring ne’er-do-well Spike Spiegel in two big budget reboots of beloved sci-fi franchises — was asked which kind of future he believed was more realistic when mankind finally reached the stars: the utopian dream of Star Trek, or the much more mercenary outlook of Cowboy Bebop?

“You know, there was a time when I thought, ‘I think Star Trek has it right, and I think we're moving towards that,’” he said in response to the question. “It was a time in my life when I felt more optimistic that we as a species were getting it together and were improving, and I hope to return to that! But now things feel a little messier for me… I guess what you're really asking is, which impulses of our species are going to prevail? I do flip flop, and right now I'm a little worried about the darker impulses gaining control.”

Sending that this isn’t perhaps the most common convention fare, he added with a laugh, “What a bummer.” But, no: the bummer might be that there’s no more Cowboy Bebop coming our way anytime soon…

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?