So how soon are Stargate fans getting a brand new, fourth series on the air?
According to former Stargate executive producer Joseph Mallozzi,
we’re about 5 chevrons into the 7-chevron dialing sequence.
“How much progress and how close are we?”
Mallozzi said on Reddit last week.
“Someone asked me how many chevrons have been locked.
I told them five.”
This new statement echoes sentiments that Mallozzi wrote on his blog back in July —
that “truth be told, we’ve never been closer to a fourth Stargate series.
… Long-suffering Stargate fans may finally be rewarded.
Provided a few crucial pieces fall into place.”
The long in development Stargate project comes from writer/producer Brad Wright,
who co-created the three previous Stargate TV series, and is confirmed to be developing a new project
for the franchise.
He’s been working on something for nearly two years now, but the COVID-19 pandemic has
very likely pushed back pitches, an official pick-up, and/or a production start.
Wright himself said in the spring that he is still trying to get the project going.
Mallozzi served as a writer and executive producer on all three Stargate television
series, joining the Stargate SG-1 writers room in the show’s fourth season.
While he has no officially announced ties to a fourth Stargate show,
he does, of course, know Wright from their shared Stargate days.
In recent weeks Mallozzi has made further comments about a potential fourth Stargate
series on his blog, on Twitter, and on Reddit.
If we sew all these pieces together (and assume Mallozzi has been fully read in on the pitch),
we begin to see a clearer picture of what Wright’s long-gestating Stargate project might look like.
While Stargate fans have heard rumblings of a new Stargate series for over two years now,
it’s important to note what exactly is news, and why it’s significant.
To help clarify and prevent any potential confusion from past updates, here are three
things that we didn’t know at the start of the summer of 2020.
#1 – It will be a series (not a one-off).
In multiple places Mallozzi refers to Wright’s project as a “Stargate series.”
That’s great news, as it suggests some sort of ongoing show — as opposed to a one-off movie,
or other project with a more limited scope.
Remember, in 2018 MGM put out Stargate Origins in the form of 10 short webisodes.
Two years ago, the best Stargate fans were hoping for was a second season of the same,
but perhaps more connected to the TV mythology – like a “Stargate Origins” Jaffa season.
On the other hand, a “series” does not rule out something with a contained story
and a set end point.
This may not be the second coming of Stargate SG-1 – a show with a long-lasting premise
that can run for a decade.
But hopefully it would run for at least two or three seasons of around 10 episodes each,
which has become Netflix’s preferred model for its original scripted dramas.
In any case, it’s exciting to know that the new Stargate will not just be a limited
series or one-off movie, and that we’ll have a full fledged show on our hands.
#2 – We’ll be seeing some old friends.
Unlike MGM’s decision in 2014 to reboot Stargate on the big screen, Brad Wright’s
project won’t rewrite years of history and mythology.
Instead it will continue on where Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe left off –
set within the same continuity and not rebooting any major plot or worldbuilding elements.
Of course that’s the case, since Brad Wright led the writers in shaping that television
universe for over 14 years of physical production.
In this case, what Mallozzi has newly confirmed is what we all hoped and expected for this
project: a setting that will allow for familiar faces to make a return.
“If the new #Stargate series [Brad Wright] is working on gets off the ground,
we’ll be seeing quite a few familiar faces,”
Mallozzi recently said on Twitter.
And while we shouldn’t expect main cast members from the previous shows to sign up
as regular cast members on a new series, we will at least get to catch up with some of
them through guest or recurring appearances.
But who would make the most sense returning to the small screen in 2021 and beyond?
Has General Mitchell (or maybe General Lorne) assumed command of the S.G.C.?
Has the Stargate program been disclosed, and is someone like Richard Woolsey the public
representative for the program?
Did Sam and Jack retire and end up together,
or are they still serving at their respective command posts?
There’s a lot of exciting possibilities to consider, but there’s more than just
individual characters to check in with.
There are bigger unanswered plot elements.
Like for instance: what happened to Destiny’s crew?
Once again, Mallozzi has some good news ...
#3 – There are plans for Destiny.
When we last saw Colonel Young, Dr. Rush, Eli, and the crew of the Destiny in the SGU
series finale “Gauntlet,” they were going into long-term stasis.
They hoped to survive the ship’s extensive voyage between galaxies, facing a long journey
on minimal power reserves.
They were even short one stasis pod: and when the series faded out in 2011,
Eli Wallace knew he had to either fix the last pod or sacrifice himself for his shipmates.
Addressing this, Mallozzi wrote on Reddit: “If Brad is successful in getting the fourth
Stargate series picked up, he already has plans for the Destiny.”
After SGU was cancelled, Wright reportedly pitched an epic crossover movie that would
draw from all three shows’ casts on a mission to rescue the crew of the Destiny.
The fact that Wright is the one who is now developing a new show means that all those
possibilities – all those percolating ideas – would not be lost to the ages.
At any rate, a new series from Wright’s imagination would give space to address not
only the fate of the Destiny’s crew, but many other lingering questions as well.
Where is Atlantis today?
Did the city ship return to the Pegasus Galaxy (as was the plan for the scrapped sixth season,
and unproduced direct-To-DVD movie Stargate: Extinction)?
Did Destiny accomplish its mission to discover the secret behind the
cosmic microwave background radiation – a signal from the beginning of time itself?
All of these are important questions to answer if the canon of the Stargate television universe
is to continue.
So what’s the hold-up?
It’s been more than two years since MGM dipped its toe back into the Stargate franchise
with the Web series Stargate Origins.
And it’s been 20 months since Wright first told us that he was actively working on a
new Stargate project with MGM.
Since then fans have understandably grown impatient, as week after week rolls by without
an announcement about Stargate from the studio.
While streaming services are pouring out dump trucks of cash for original programming, Stargate
continues to hang firmly on the vine as a property with a built-in audience that is
ripe for the picking.
But in TV and film production it takes time to get all the ducks in a row —
especially in the era of COVID.
It’s only in the last month or so that many Vancouver (or Canadian based) series are finally
getting back to work, with shooting dates ramping up in the fall.
It’s important to note that “Five chevrons locked” may not indicate that MGM has found
a home for the show yet.
That’s probably what Chevron 6 or 7 entails.
Elsewhere on the Reddit thread Mallozzi reiterated that the time may come for fans to petition
the likes of Amazon, Apple, and FOX – and he will let fans know if they need to participate
in another social media campaign, to ensure the fourth Stargate series finds a home.
“This has been a surprisingly long process,” Mallozzi said.
“My initiative (the tweetstorms) was part of a concerted fan effort to convince the
studio that: a) Stargate fans want and would support a new Stargate series, and b) said
series should NOT be a reboot that would wipe out some 20 years of stories and characters,
but a new show set within the established Stargate universe that would appeal to new fans,
but also reward long-suffering fans with guest appearances, cameos, Easter eggs
and the answer to many of their burning questions.
THAT proved challenging.
But progress was finally made with the announcement that Brad was once again in talks with MGM.
Since then, things have progressed — but the pandemic has thrown a wrench into things
(across the industry).”
That said, two years and five chevrons later, and it may nearly be time to gear up
to go through the wormhole once again…
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