It’s been a decade since Stargate last appeared on television, and ever since, there’s been some low-level chatter about a revival of the science fiction franchise.
Now, it sounds as though that potential revival might include at least one familiar face: Daniel Jackson, played by Michael Shanks. The word comes from a podcast interview (via Syfy Wire) with the actor and series creator Brad Wright.
Ever since Stargate went off the air with the conclusion of Stargate Universe in 2011 (and following a mini-revival with the now-defunct Stargate streaming service and community hub Stargate Command), there have been calls for the series to return in some form, especially given the appetite for new shows on streaming services. Stargate SG-1 (but not Atlantis or Universe) recently moved over to stream on Netflix, which could introduce the franchise to another generation of viewers.
Over the years, Wright has said that he’s working on something for MGM, and last year, fellow Stargate producer Joseph Mallozzi noted on his blog that “long-suffering Stargate fans may finally be rewarded. Provided a few crucial pieces fall into place.”
Of course, that was before the COVID-19 pandemic threw Hollywood through a loop, but it sounds as though those efforts to bring back the franchise are still underway in some form.
Wright interviewed Shanks for his podcast on a site called The Companion in which they reminisced about filming the show and shared a couple of updates on the potential series, including the fact that he’s been writing lines for Daniel Jackson (at the 11:38 mark):
“Writing [Daniel Jackson] — and I have written you more recently, to tease that — I gotta say how easy it is when you’re writing a familiar character, when you’ve written 10,000 lines for. I can hear your voice very clearly when I’m typing.”
Daniel Jackson was a major character for much of Stargate SG-1. First introduced in the original Stargate movie (played by James Spader) as a brilliant archeologist who unlocks the secret to activating the Stargate ring, he later returns to Earth after his wife is kidnapped by the Goa’uld, a civilization of parasitic aliens, and joins a military unit tasked with exploring the vast network of planets connected by Stargates.
While the Stargate franchise moved on from SG-1 with two additional shows, Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate Universe, the character does appear in a handful of episodes in each.
It’s unclear what a revival of the franchise might look like: Universe ended on a cliffhanger, so there’s potential for some sort of conclusion there, but that series featured a new cast and largely stood on its own. Going by Wright’s statement, it seems as though Jackson could play a role in whatever project they’re working on. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer before we see what they’re up to.
I hope Shanks has gotten over his burnout with the character, towards the end of the show he really seemed very jaded with the whole thing. I loved Daniel, I thought that he was the emotional core of the series, but Shanks did not seem a happy actor in the last season or even in the Atlantis and Universe cameos. If he has found his joy again though, then I cannot wait to see this.
Although it will always be a little tinged with sadness without Don S Davis, the best depiction of a military officer in fiction and one hell of a human being too.
I love the heck out of SG-1 but it felt like the showrunners were losing the plot a bit in the later seasons. I remember thinking “why do they need starships when the entire premise of this show is…a gateway that can transport you to another world?”
I enjoyed this show the most in its early seasons when it was an adventure-of-the-week show.
I love the heck out of SG-1 but it felt like the showrunners were losing the plot a bit in the later seasons. I remember thinking “why do they need starships when the entire premise of this show is…a gateway that can transport you to another world?”
Yeah, I always had mixed feelings about that, too.
One of the SGC’s mission statements from the beginning was to acquire and develop technology to defend Earth from the Goa’uld and other threats. The building of the F-302s and the capital ships at least felt earned by the closing years and showed how far Earth had come since the Abydos mission.
And from a narrative perspective, it also allowed the SG-1 Writers Room to finally tell the kind of stories they couldn’t have told in the early Seasons.
But at the same time, yeah, I think the price paid was that the Gate Network lost some of its importance in the later years (both here and over on SGA).
Mr Magic @@@@@ 3,
One mental gripe I had with both SG-1 and SGA was that, given the stated mission, you often DIDN’T see any development of genuinely significant technology that appeared in an episode.
Examples? Ummmmm, OK. Why was Jacob Carter the only terminally ill person recruited into the Tok’Ra? I would have thought HIV/AIDS alone would provide literally thousands of relatively young people, with terminal diagnoses, who would be eager to take a host, and who would from the perspective of the terrestrial authorities have simply died.
Or the episode where the SG-1 team gets cloned in Android form? Leaving aside the ‘against their will’ factor in the actual plot, I could see some massive exploitation of that technology to aid the war effort. (Let’s see. How much productive research could we get out of, say, 100 Samantha Carters?)
The last 2 seasons of SG1 were really a sort of soft reboot, and not as much fun. The real problem with SG1 was that it was, from the very beginning, built around a Big Bad who could crush Earth anytime it really wanted if it got its act together. Followed, in the last 2 seasons, by bigger Bads that were, basically, gods. Atlantics got around that by being cut off, and I never saw Universe. But a revival would be best done as a Planet That Looks Like Vancouver of the Week without a Big Bad because by this time, we are the Big Bads. Hmmm. Now there’s a thought. SG:X as the Bad Guys….
@5:
While the last two season where very much the WORST two seasons of the show, I still love them for giving us Vala and Daniel as a pair (if not a couple). Their chemistry on-screen was fantastic.
@5, We are the Big Bads? Really? Not only has that been the theme of almost any sf show of the last decade, it was already a major theme of the original SG. I hope they come up with something more original.
Stargate Atlantis was the best sequel of Stargate. It got ruined of Rodney getting more and more to be the only star and the center. Scientist stay as a nerd you are, please dont try to become Rambo, Romeo, Juliet and Nobelprice in one. Boring.
Sure I hope there is a new Stargate series soon, thats killer but please no SG Universe fat boy scientist Eli nonsense thats so killing just everything and so boring. Stargate is action fantasy based great and fast entertainment, not a nerd trying to find a girl and ruining the show borer.