Category: Universe

Is it possible that MGM will give Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich the green light to finally see their vision of a Stargate movie trilogy become a reality? That seems to be the hope of Devlin, who was interviewed by Collider as he was attending the Saturn Awards to accept the Dr. Donald A. Reed Founder’s Award.

Originally a Trilogy of Movies

“Well, the irony is that we actually wrote it as a trilogy of movies, but we were never able to do Parts 2 and 3,” Devlin responded when asked if he had thought about making Stargate into a television series or making more than one movie. “So, our hope is now that the series is starting to wind down, that maybe it will be time to get to do Parts 2 and 3. So, we’re still hopeful that we’ll get to come back and tell the rest of that story.”

A Different Mythology

Devlin said that the continuation of the story in these sequels would use the actors from the movie, not the television series. At the end of Stargate, Col. Jack O’Neil, played by Kurt Russell, had led a mission to a planet on the other side of the known universe and helped the natives, who were descendants of those taken from Ancient Egypt of 10,000 years ago, revolt against their alien-with-a-human-host overlord Ra, played by Jaye Davison. Familiar faces from the movie include Alexis Cruz and Erick Avari, who went on to play Skaara and his father Kasuf, respectively, in the television series Stargate SG-1.

Playing the pivotal role of Dr. Daniel Jackson, the one who unlocked the Stargate and made travel through it possible, was James Spader. At the end of the movie, Jackson stayed on the planet to be with his new wife, Sha’uri, played by Milli Avital, but viewers were left with the feeling that Jack and Daniel would be reunited for new adventures through the Stargate. That hint was picked up by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, leading to the creation of the television franchise with its fourteen years’ worth of mythology.

In the original Stargate mythology, the Stargate was part of Project Giza that was housed deep inside Creek Mountain and led by General West (Leon Rippy). General West was mentioned in SG-1‘s pilot “Children of the Gods,” and was replaced by General George Hammond (portrayed by the late Don S. Davis), and the location of the Stargate was changed to be Cheyenne Mountain underneath NORAD. Even with some of these changes, the television series did stay true to most of the mythology set in motion in the movie and fleshed out the lives of some of the other characters, although played by different actors: Catherine Langford, Ferretti, and Kawalsky.

What would Stargate be like without the Goa’uld, Jaffa with symbiote pouches, and the Ancients? In the Devlin/Emmerich vision of Stargate, Samantha Carter and Teal’c don’t exist, and neither do the city-ship Atlantis and the Ancients’ exploratory vessel Destiny.

So what would this new Stargate universe look like? “Well, I think it’ll change a little bit from our original ideas since so many years have passed, but we wanted to explore the idea of how the Stargates were built originally and where else in the universe they exist and why they exist and where else they exist on Earth. We had originally planned it out as a trilogy of films to allow this mythology to grow bigger and bigger.”

Indeed, the mythology grew bigger and bigger, but in a direction that its original creators had not envisioned. Perhaps this “alternate reality” that they plan will reopen the Stargate to new adventures and perhaps even spawn another fourteen years of television history.

Let’s Talk About It

How do you feel about the possibility of a “reboot” of the Stargate mythology? Would you go to see these movies? Would you be able to get the television mythology out of your mind to carry the concept in another direction? Will you be able to get Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks out of your mind when watching Jack and Daniel? Does your heart break at the thought that maybe the Goa’uld, Ancients, Asgard, Atlantis, and Destiny don’t exist in this vision of the franchise? What other things concern you about the possibility of these movies and the impact they could have on the franchise that we’re attached to?

Stargate fans can mourn, but at the same time Stargate collectors can rejoice! There will be an auction of many of the franchise’s props this coming Friday and Saturday (June 17 and 18).

The Province declares, “You could own a part of the universe.”

Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi wrote about the event in his recent weblog entry: “[H]alf of the FX stage (that once held the village and hive ship sets) is filled with stuff from the shows.” The Province has a picture of the stage, so visit the website to see which props you can readily identify.

The Province got quotes from actor David Nykl (Dr. Radek Zelenka, Stargate Atlantis) and producer John Lenic, who worked on all three shows in the franchise. Lenic described the auction:

Some of the furniture key to Stargate Universe and Atlantis, that stuff will go fairly quickly. There’s monitors that were built into the set, people saw them for years. There’s a lot of military clothing. Basically the majority of the stuff being sold is stuff that we’ve used in the three shows over the 14 years that isn’t specific to any episode.

VIP Auctions, out of Chicago, are running the auction and will be selling the Stargate itself, either in pieces or as a whole. The finality of this struck Mallozzi as well when he commended the efforts of the Save SGU campaign, but at the same time admitted, “Can’t tell you how touching it is to read that fan efforts are still ongoing despite what most (myself included) consider very long odds.”

About the auction Mallozzi concluded, “Sad, sad, sad. :(”

We couldn’t agree more.