Shanks speaks of unfounded rumour

The Michael Shanks-devoted site MSOL reports today:

Over the last few days there has been some speculation regarding a 3rd series in the Stargate franchise, and the reported news that Michael Shanks has been approached to star in the series.

We have just received confirmation from Michael via his publicist that the information regarding his reported involvement in the series is “completely unfounded and unsubstantiated. No one has contacted Michael with any such news/offerings/ideas, etc.”

As far as Michael is concerned, this is “just an unfounded rumor.”

Solutions naturally is extremely disappointed by this development. We’ve had a long relationship with a completely trusted source close to the production who has never led us astray. For example, we were the first site to ‘scoop’ the exploration of Arthurian mythology and the revelation of Merlin as an Ancient in Season 9. While others scoffed and impugned our integrity, Season 9 unfolded exactly as we predicted.

We had the assurance of our source that their comments were accurate. Their comments have always been accurate. We have the assurance, now, from Michael Shanks, that they were not accurate. Whatever’s happening behind the scenes, we no longer know.

Our apologies to one and all for this; we posted as we have always done, in good faith. The last thing we wanted for Daniel fans was an emotional high to be followed by a fall. We are deeply sorry for that.

10 thoughts on “Shanks speaks of unfounded rumour”

  1. You are assuming that your “reliable” source does not have a political agenda of his own. I think most of the fandom know who your source is and I think most of the fandom would agree he has never been unbiased or acted in anyone’s interest but his own. For him to leak or suggest this latest “scoop” only means that either he or his latest “star acquisition” are unhappy that they might be about to be upstaged.

  2. It’s a bad habit to reply to your own post, but I’m pretty depressed about this. I preferred the dream where Daniel was such a central and valued character to the reality where his actor was the only one whose contract wasn’t renewed for the expected 11th season. Sigh.

  3. Moley: “most of fandom” would then be wrong about the identity of this source. And they’d be wrong about the individual you’re referring to. Even back in the day, when he and I were slugging it out toe-to-toe on the forums over the SDJ campaign, no matter how angry I got, and I *was* angry, no question about that, I recognised a quality of loyalty to the production. My belief in that loyalty remains today.

    We posted the original news item in good faith just as we posted the correction in good faith, as soon as we were made aware of it. If the wording is awkward, we can only apologise. Disappointment and confusion are no aids to composition.

  4. I’m actually happy that it turned out to be wrong (as far as we can tell anyway). Daniel is my favorite character throughout the series but when I heard the news that SG-1 was ending, I kind of liked the idea of having a closed canon (and therefore no more chances that the character could be ruined for me). I’m really not a huge fan of Daniel and Vala interaction and I fear that if it turned out to be a show with Daniel and Vala that they would decide to throw in romance which I’m also not a fan of in the Stargate series. I think we’ve seen the character of Daniel go through a lot over 10 years and I’m ready to see the conclusion of his character after the movies are done. I’d also like to see MS have the chance to move on in his career.

    While I’m a fan of Daniel, I much rather prefer to see him with the rest of SG-1. His interactions with them is a lot of what made me love his character and I don’t really care to see him move on to another group of people. I think the third series would be better if they start over with a whole new cast though I wonder why they don’t just stick with putting more money into Atlantis.

  5. That’s so sad to hear! 🙁 I’m still going to keep my fingers crossed that somebody has sense enough to realize that Daniel *is* Stargate and that of all of them, he stands the best chance to bring success to the new spinoff.

  6. I’m so disappointed! I feel like a little kid who has just been told there’s no such thing as Santa. Over the last couple of days, I was more excited about Stargate than at any time since the miniseries. Heck, I was almost willing to watch the SciFi channel again. But I guess it was too good to be true. BTW, I’m sure the folks at Solutions posted this information in good faith with a high degree of confidence at the time. I’m sure you’re all as disappointed as I am.

  7. I do sympathize with all who are disappointed, but I’m glad to see one person agreeing with me, Mike21! I do like Vala, very much, but I don’t really want to see Daniel without SG-1. The character has had a long run and a good one, and I do hope to see occasional adventures in movie or mini-series format for SG-1. I don’t want to see The Daniel Jackson Hour, or the Daniel and Vala Show: he’s my favorite character, but it is possible to overuse a character.

    Rumors are sometimes mistaken; even honest people err. I appreciate all the news I’ve gotten here in the past, and just because one source was wrong on one occasion, I don’t see any need to cast any blame. I very much appreciate the quick correction.

    I’m still looking forward to the movies!

  8. Ok, I don’t want to be the naive one holding out false hope, but didn’t something similar happen when the rumors were starting about a “Joey” spinoff from friends? Basically, the buzz was around that he was being offered the opportunity, but he denied it for a while.

    I think this can be due to a couple of different things, one of which being that the actor doesn’t want to let the cat out of the bag until something substantial has been negotiated. After all, can you imagine the fan backlash if Shanks ended up turning down a spinoff for whatever reason, especially for something like money?

    Now, I’m not saying that Shanks is lying about it, but even if he did know something, would he spill everything before he had made up his mind?

    I’m not just saying this because I want it to be true (though, I do), it’s just, this sounds like something that would be a good move on everyone’s part, for a number of reasons. First, Shanks really is the heart of the show. That might not be true if RDA was still aboard, but without him, Daniel is easily the most important character, and easily has the most depth. Second, this isn’t like breaking up the original SG-team. After all, Shanks was gone for a season, then Don Davis and RDA left the show, Atlantis was born, Browder and Black came aboard, and we started getting accustomed to Stargate team changes.

    The fact is, Shanks could head a new show with new talent and a lot of us would be thrilled with that. Not that I don’t like the rest of the crew, but I’ve heard Teal’c say “indeed” and Carter spout techno-jargon for 10 years, and Mitchell, well he’s never really fit. With him it’s kinda like when they tried to replace Roy Scheider with Michael Ironsides on Seaquest. There’s only so far they can go with any of those characters.

    None of them could anchor a show, it would fail like “Joey” did. But Daniel is a strong enough character to pull a show along. Especially if they found some cheap talent and built it on a good premise. Heck, Atlantis has done well and the only character that is mildly interesting to me on that show is Sheppard.

    So anyway, all I’m saying is, don’t give up hope just yet. It seems like MGM and Scifi would both be wise to give that a go if Shanks would agree to be part of it.

  9. As much as I want to believe Michael/Daniel could be central to a spin-off, I have no reason to doubt Michael’s word. He’s always been very honest about such things. On his latest interview at thescifiworld.net, Michael is very clear that he hasn’t been approached about anything. I find it very hard not to take that at face value!

  10. Well, here’s the excerpt of what he said:

    “As far as I know, I don’t know anything about a 3rd Stargate series being developed at this moment. I mean, I’m not in direct contact with anybody that would be developing it, specifically just the talking phases quite possibly, but I am certainly well aware that I haven’t been approached and there’s no abundant rumor that there’s another series being developed right now. Which doesn’t mean its not true, just means its being kept quiet if it is, but no one said boo to me about anything so I know nothing about those subjects.”

    I don’t know, maybe its completely bogus, but going back to the “Joey” thing, this was what happened with it, as I recall. Even as far back as a year prior to the end of Friends, there were rumors and speculation that he would be offered a spinoff, and he (again, as I recall) claimed that he had not been offered anything, that it was all speculation.

    Besides, even if Shanks hasn’t been approached about it yet, that doesn’t mean the whole thing is untrue. It could be a case of it being, as he said it could be, just in the talking stages, and being kept relatively quiet.

    Let’s hope. He’s one of the best sci-fi characters ever, and they could go lots of directions with him.

Comments are closed.