According to Stargate Universe executive producer Joseph Mallozzi in his weblog, filming for Season Two will begin with the fourth episode “Pathogen” “a week from Wednesday” (March 10).
“Pathogen” is written by Carl Binder and will be directed by a “special guest director.”
Casting for the episode has most likely already started, since we’ve seen the audition sides for Ginn and Simeon (spoilers at this link), which have been recently released. At least one of these characters will have a multi-episode arc at the start of the new season.
The second half of Season One has yet to air, so it’s difficult to talk about returning cast members without going into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, there is a high probability that we’ll be seeing all of the members of the main cast return to the Vancouver sets for filming.
And speaking of the sets, the set tour usually scheduled by Creation Entertainment for their yearly Vancouver convention has been cancelled. The reason: the Atlantis and SG-1 standing sets have been altered to make room for Universe. Fans have taken this move to mean that this spells the end of hope of ever filming the Stargate Extinction and Stargate Revolution movies that have already been scripted, but not given the green light to begin filming. To this Mallozzi responded, “Many have weighed in with their assumptions on if and when the movies will be made and, at this point, given that we’ve received no official word either way, all I could add to debate is more conjecture. Suffice it to say I’d love to see both go into production, especially Stargate: Extinction since Paul and I have already written the script and are slated to produced it. As for the sets – the SG-1 set was struck to make room for Icarus Base while other stage space has been freed up in order to create more Destiny sets (as our heroes will eventually discover cool new sections of the ship).”
It should be slightly encouraging to the fans that the Stargate franchise still has these sets to use. Mallozzi has pointed out in the past, “Just because the SGC isn’t there now doesn’t mean it can’t be for the movie.” This probably goes for the Atlantis set and movie as well.
In the meantime, the countdown is getting closer to zero as the second half of Season One will begin on Syfy with “Space” on April 2.
“Pathogen” will be directed by a “special guest director” maybe by Robert Carlyle, besause according this web Carlyle will direct episode.
http://www.bcfilmcommission.com/about_us/film_list/main35.htm?film_type=series
Good catch! I do remember reading an interview somewhere wherein Carlyle mentioned wanting to direct! 🙂