Browder is already aware of the great expectations for his new role on the long-running series. Unfortunately, he doesn’t even know his character’s name yet! “As I understand it, the last time I talked to Robert [Cooper, executive producer] they were working on clearance and stuff,” he said. “I’d better call up Rob. Tell him to start writing! ‘Dude, I don’t want to put pressure on you, man, but my head’s on the line!'”
When we asked what he’s most looking forward to doing on the show, one answer immediately leaped to his mind: “Going through the gate! I’m looking forward to what’s on the other side of the gate.”
In addition to the new character’s name, fans have been speculating how the producers will deal with the fact that Browder and co-star Michael Shanks (“Daniel Jackson”) look so much alike. “I don’t know that when we get on camera whether there will be a problem,” Browder said. “I have seen comparisons. It’s been drawn to my attention that we look similar, but you can match up a few photographs. Anybody can almost look like anybody.”
Series creator Brad Wright recently joked that they were going to shave the actor’s head. “Shave my head?! Oh that’d be interesting,” he joked. “That’d be a fun day at the barber’s. Yeah, because Christopher Judge has grown hair now. If I shave my head then they’re going to confuse me with Teal’c. ‘God, he looks so much like Christopher Judge!’ We’ll have a whole separate set of problems. Or I’ll look like the chevron guy!”
 Browder and Claudia Black co-star in Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. They’ll reunite on Stargate SG-1 when Season Nine premieres this summer. |
Thus far Ben has yet to even set foot on the set of Stargate, but he is confident everything will be fine when he does. “Claudia speaks very highly of her time that she spent there in Season Eight,” he said, “otherwise she wouldn’t be back for Season Nine. If she didn’t enjoy the process and didn’t enjoy working with the people up there and with Michael then she wouldn’t be back, so that speaks volumes.”
Will we be seeing Ben at future Stargate conventions? “I haven’t heard anything about it yet,” he said. “We’ll see. It might be a bit premature. You know, I could be off-world at that time. You don’t know!”
Fans are still hoping for a Season Ten of the hit series as well, but Browder said that he needs to get through his first week of shooting before making plans. “I would love to be reassuring and be able to say just to myself, ‘Oh, yeah, this is definitely going to work.’ But quite often I find that making television, making film, doing plays, telling stories, there is a mysterious component to it and you never know if it’s going to work. And if it works, then hopefully an audience will come to it and you will get to do more. And if it doesn’t work … then run for the hills!”
Season Nine of SG-1 begins filming in March, and will premiere on The SCI FI Channel this summer!