Amazon has ordered a new Stargate series

Amazon's MGM studios has announced that it's bringing back the Stargate franchise. It's ordered a new series from creator Martin Gero, who worked extensively on the prior installments of the franchise, Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe, as well as on shows like Dark Matter, The L.A. Complex, and as showrunner for Blindspot and the recent Quantum Leap revival.

Prime Video released an announcement video:

Roland Emmerich directed the original film, Stargate, in 1994, in which archeologists discovered a mysterious ring buried in a ruin in Egypt. Decades later, they've discovered that it's a teleportation portal created by an advanced civilization of aliens, and after they figure out how to activate it, the military sends a team of special forces operatives through to find another, habitable planet, where the figures from Egyptian mythology are real – they're aliens from an advanced civilization.

Showtime spun the film off into a television show starting in 1997, where it ran for five seasons before transferring over to the SCI FI channel, running for another five years. The series followed some of the same characters from the film – officer Jack O'Neill and archeologist Daniel Jackson, and introduced some new ones: airwoman / scientist Samantha Carter and Goa'uld defector T'ealc, as they formed a recon team that explored new planets to research the civilizations on them, and potentially acquire new technologies for Earth to use.

Earth and Stargate Command becomes a formattable presence in the galaxy as they help various planets fight against the Goa'uld – a race of parasitic aliens who take over bodies – and while there's a "planet of the week" vibe to the show, they also explored everything from government conspiracies, grey goo aliens and artificial intelligence, revolutions, and various threats to the planet. It's got a lot in it.

SCI Fi eventually greenlit a sequel / companion series, Stargate Atlantis, setting up a expedition to another galaxy, where a new set of heroes fight against another alien threat. It ran for five seasons, starting in 2004 until 2009. A third series arrived in 2009, Stargate Universe, in which a group of humans are forced to flee on to an ship built by a civilization known as the Ancients, where they're trapped. That series came to an end in 2011 after two seasons, bringing an end to the franchise. The series was notable because of how interconnected it became, long before the MCU or Arrowverse did the same things: the shows often crossed over and shared characters, building out a durable and vibrant world.

In the years since Universe came to an end, there's been a handful of attempts to revitalize the show: When Amazon acquired MGM studios in 2021, there was the hope that with that catalog of content, they'd see the franchise as something worth reviving. Over the years, there was the occasional word that there were projects being pitched or people being approached for it, but nothing ever really seemed to come of it, until now.

According to Variety, MGM didn't reveal any details about the series, but it's notable that Brad Wright and Joseph Mallozzi, who oversaw the television franchise, will be involved.

On his blog, Mallozzi provided some details: "it's not a reboot or a wholesale reimagining that will wipe the slate clean on 17 seasons and some 350 hours of Stargate history," he explained, "It’s a new series that will be the perfect jumping-on point for first-time viewers while, at the same time, honoring the existing past."

This is excellent news, in my view: over the course of its run, Stargate amassed a truly impressive body of stories – enough to power an entire, dedicated streaming service and community platform! That volume of episodes and characters lent itself to a number of well-developed characters, world, and canon that rivals that of better-known science fiction franchises like Star Trek or Star Wars. Throwing that all out the window for a reboot or restart for the concept felt like it would really be counterproductive, even if the franchise was in need of something over an overhaul as viewer habits and story styles changed with the streaming era.

It'll be a while before this happens: Mallozzi pointed out that there's a pilot script and plans for the first season (and beyond), but the next steps will be for "the writers room [to] be assembled, stories need to be spun, scripts written, prep started, crew hired, actors cast and, eventually, a new Stargate series produced."

My read here is that this this'll be a return to the same world as the prior three shows, but with a new cast and situation. The concept is an enduring one: explore new worlds with a small core of characters, and there'd be some room for the old guard to make some cameo appearances here and there, while handing the story off to a new generation. There's a lot of possibilities for that, and it'll be interesting to see what Gero and his team comes up with, especially in an era where television shows have shrunk down to 8-10 episodes and feature a more serialized story.

Hopefully, it'll be as exciting as the originals.