The dawn of the third age

After a decade-and-a-half hiatus, we've got the first glimpse of some new stories from the Babylon 5 universe. Warner Bros. just unveiled a trailer for its upcoming animated film, Babylon 5: The Road Home. It's like seeing an old friend you haven't laid eyes on in as long, and it looks like it'll be a lot of fun to watch.  

The original Babylon 5 series ran on PTEN between 1993 and 1997, and it's become one of those shows that's something of a cult classic. The early CGI and some of the elements of the world have become a bit dated, but when I rewatched it back in 2021, I was impressed at how well it held up. It's a science fiction series with considerable heart and purpose, and it's more relevant than ever.

For years, creator J. Michael Straczynski has spoken about how Warner Bros. had no plans to do anything with the underlying intellectual property, and while there had been some rumblings of a new movie, the last project from the franchise was 2007's Babylon 5: Lost Tales, a two-part, direct-to-DVD project designed to serve as an anthology series. But in September 2021, word broke that Straczynski was partnering with The CW to completely reboot the franchise, although that project seems to have hit some roadblocks as the network's put itself up for sale and changed its approach to content.

This new animated film is disconnected from those reboot plans: it's a continuation of the original series, and from the trailer, it looks like we'll follow President John Sheridan as he's bounced through a bunch of timelines, looking at alternate universes to see differing outcomes of the story that he'd been part of. At the very least, it seems like it could be a good way to handwave away a reboot as another one of those alternate universes.

Interestingly, this doesn't looks like it's headed to Max as a streaming exclusive: the trailer notes that it'll be a physical release (ahem), and that you can buy it online at various online platforms. It'll drop on August 15th: I don't see a preorder link for the physical versions yet, but I imagine they'll come soon.