In 2009 Stargate was at the height of its popularity after 10 seasons Stargate
SG-1 had released a pair of exciting DVD movies Stargate Atlantis was about to
get a movie of its own and Stargate Universe premiered with a different take
on the venerable franchise that grabbed many new viewers. Meanwhile a massively
multiplayer online role-playing game called Stargate Worlds was in
development intended to be the fourth leg of a stable franchise that would
thrive for years to come. Within two years it had all come crashing down and
Stargate was off the air. It left fans wondering: Will Stargate ever return? Well
now in 2018 we may finally have an answer. My name is Darren, you're watching
GateWorld, and today we're talking about whether there might be a fourth Stargate
TV series. Maybe the most important fact to start with is this one: MGM loves
Stargate. The independent Hollywood studio has owned the franchise since it
acquired the rights from Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich back in the 1990s.
Stargate has been a billion-dollar international success for the company.
What James Bond has been for MGM's film business, Stargate was on television for
nearly 15 years. Not only that, but many inside MGM are fans and want to see
Stargate come back as much as you and I do. Syfy Channel cancelled Stargate
Universe in December of 2010 -- December 16th, to be precise. That date is
important because the decision came right at the tail- end of MGM's
bankruptcy proceedings, when the studio was in no position to do anything about
it. Executive producer Brad Wright pitched
several ideas for keeping the Stargate open in some form -- even a crossover movie
that would tie up the loose ends from Atlantis and SGU. But there just wasn't
any money for it. After some major housecleaning and new people put in
charge the studio would emerge with a fresh start on December 20th -- only four
days after SGU's cancellation. With new financing in place it would still take a
few years for MGM to figure out where to take the Stargate
franchise next. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich had created the original
Stargate feature film back in 1994, and they'd been vocal for years about their
desire to return and complete the story as they had envisioned it. In May 2014
they seemingly got their wish: MGM announced that it would make a new
trilogy of Stargate movies with Devlin at the helm. Stargate was back ... sort of.
In subsequent interviews the producer made it clear that while he respected what
the three television series had achieved -- including building an international
fan base -- it just wasn't the Stargate story he wanted to tell. The new films
would reboot the concept entirely with a new cast of characters going through the
gate for the first time ... and wiping away 17 seasons of characters and continuity.
Can you imagine Stargate with no Samantha Carter?
No Teal'c? No Goa'uld? Development on the first movie kicked around for two and a
half years, with a script in the works while the team first kicked out another
long-awaited 90s sequel: Independence Day: Resurgence. That movie was released on
June 20th, 2016, and it got pretty widespread criticism from moviegoers and
critics alike. Now it's probably not ID4'S fault entirely
but by November Devlin revealed publicly that the Stargate reboot just wasn't
meant to be. He and Emmerich went on to other
projects and Stargate went back onto MGM's shelf. Now here's where we have to
remind ourselves: MGM loves Stargate. It's not just a little cable show that did
pretty well. SG-1 in its day was the longest-running
science fiction series ever produced in North America. It had two spin-offs,
merchandise, fan conventions, and a massive international following. The
franchise is worth more when it's out there making money ... not stuck on the
shelf. so the studio needed a new plan to revive one of its crown jewels. At San
Diego Comic-Con in July of 2017 it announced that a new production had been
green-lit: Stargate Origins. origins was to be much smaller-scale than a movie
trilogy or a fourth TV show. But at least it was something! This was a 10-part,
short-form Web series to be streamed on a new digital platform: Stargate Command.
It entered production that fall and was released in February and March, 2018.
As nice as it is having live-action Stargate stories back in production,
fans are still asking: Will there be a fourth television series? A full-length
production with a full-sized budget to go with it? At this stage in the
franchise history the answer seems to be ... probably so! MGM is likely acting out of
an abundance of caution, wanting to put out a fourth series at the right time
and in just the right place. That might not mean cable television in the U.S.
And the studio certainly has options, from streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu
to smaller channels that it owns or operates. It's not far-fetched to
conclude that Stargate Origins gives MGM a relatively inexpensive opportunity to
test the waters, gauge fan enthusiasm and appetite for more trips through the
ancient portal. and the response has been pretty good! even if the final product
shows its budget, fans are talking about Stargate again. And they're clearly
hungry for more, with a fan campaign quickly organized to generate a "tweet storm"
of activity in March of 2018, hoping to show the studio that its
commitment to reviving Stargate isn't misplaced. The bottom line: Stargate's
return in a fourth TV series probably isn't a question of "if," but of "when."
We'd also like to see a continuation of what has come before instead of a blank-slate
reboot. In the new Golden Age of content and a widening array of distribution
methods what really remains to be seen is what kind of show it is, where it ends up,
and what the studio envisions for Stargate's future.
Be sure to leave us a comment below and tell us what you'd like to see out of a
fourth Stargate series! Subscribe now to GateWorld on YouTube and remember to
hit the Alerts button to find out about the latest videos. And you can always
find the latest Stargate news and conversations on our Web site: GateWorld.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment