It's been nearly a year since the news broke that Amazon MGM Studios was bringing another popular MGM franchise back to our screens with a new Stargate TV series for Prime Video.
Martin Gero, who created NBC's Blindspot, was announced as showrunner on a revival that looked set to join Tomb Raider, Barbershop, Legally Blonde prequel Elle, Poltergeist, and Robocop as big-screen properties being reimagined as streaming series.
This past June, Amazon confirmed that it had axed Stargate. According to the Hollywood trades, "Amazon execs were concerned that Gero's take on the series would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase."
Specific plot details for the revival were never revealed, but we now have some insights from Richard Dean Anderson, who played Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG-1. According to the actor, Michael Shanks' Daniel Jackson was set to be used as a bridge between the original series and this reimagining.
"I’ve stayed out of touch with many things in my life, but the politics going on over the reboot, they’re calling it - first of all, it technically didn’t seem like a reboot more than it was using Michael Shanks’ character, Daniel, well, again, as the conduit that would take us from our show, from our universe to the next generation of it. Something has gone awry in the negotiations, or the development, or who’s going to run it, who’s going to control it, etc. etc. There are so many things that take place behind the scenes anyway. I can guess what has been happening, but I think it’s been forestalled because of all of those things I just referenced a second ago."
"I honestly don’t know what’s happening to it or what’s going to happen with it. It feels, to talk to Michael about it, that it’s kind of a dead issue. I don’t know that for sure. Please don’t spread the word. But there is a campaign going on. Save Stargate. That’s the name of the campaign that’s going on to not let it die. In other words, to save it. That’s as clear as I can be, which is such a sad commentary."
Stargate's premise is brilliantly simple yet infinitely expandable, making it all the more surprising that this new take was abandoned. Still, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale, it seems the streamer was uncertain about relying on longtime fans returning and the ability to attract new ones when there's so much history to catch up on.
In the series, ancient alien devices called "Stargates" create wormholes between planets, allowing near-instantaneous travel across the galaxy. When humans discover how to operate these mysterious portals, they form specialised military teams to explore thousands of worlds, encountering both wonders and dangers among the stars.
Gero, who got his start working on Stargate: Atlantis, was set to serve as creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner. Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) were tapped to produce with Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the creative force behind the 1994 Stargate movie.
Brad Wright and Joseph Mallozzi, longtime creative leaders within the Stargate TV universe, had come on board as consulting producers.
Whether Amazon will revisit Stargate remains to be seen.