The last time we saw anything Stargate on the TV or movie screen was in 2011, when the third Stargate spinoff, Stargate Universe, aired its final episode. The sci-fi show lasted two seasons, paltry in comparison to the first two spinoffs, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, which lasted 10 and five seasons, respectively.
The TV spinoffs, whose genesis was the 1994 movie Stargate, are considered offshoots of the original idea, and now, creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are creating a sequel movie to Stargate. Emmerich and Devlin say that Stargate was initially conceived as a trilogy, so there is plenty of material left to explore. MGM and Warner Bros. are producing the reboot.
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“Because of what happened with the rights and changes at the studio and all kinds of strange things, we never got to do parts two and three,” he continued. “It’s not a story that can take place 20 years later, so the only way to really tell that trilogy is to go back from the beginning and start the story all over again.”
After the original Stargate movie finished its theatrical run, MGM kept the rights to the franchise and the TV shows were crafted and run without Devlin and Emmerich. The duo’s plan, now that they’re back in control of the series, is to start anew, discarding the continuity of the existing material.
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“It was taken away from us, and it’s tough to have your children raised by other parents, even if they do a very good job,” said Devlin. “For us, it’s not putting down what has been done. It’s to let us finish telling our story.”
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So what can Stargate fans expect from the new movie?
“Today, studios tend to not think of movies as trilogies or sequels, but as cinematic universes,” he said. “So as we’ve been developing it, we found all these avenues that allow it to expand. The foundation is exactly the same as what we wanted to do, but now the possibilities are much wider.”
Devlin also stated that he’s hoping the sequel will re-ignite interest in the franchise, paving the way for future TV series. (This is good news for Canadian TV production, since the Stargate TV series were shot in Vancouver. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)
The first Stargate movie grossed $196 million worldwide.
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