Cooper and Wright on SG-1’s ‘Avalon’

Stargate SG-1 will explore classic Arthurian mythology in the 2-part Season Nine premiere, “Avalon,” executive producers Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright told fans at Creation Entertainment’s recent official Stargate convention in Vancouver, B.C.

“Atlantis was about where the Ancients went after they left this galaxy. The big revelation at the beginning of Season Nine is that they didn’t start here — they came from somewhere else,” Cooper revealed. “And we find a piece of Ancient technology and use it in conjunction with some other Ancient technology that we had lying around and are able to discover where they came from. And in going there we get ourselves into some trouble!”

“It’s not really ‘lying around,'” Wright joked. “You wrote a better script than that! ‘What’s this in my closet?'”

Fans can expect the same classic Stargate take on a familiar, real-world mythology, the producers said. “In the same way that Atlantis was our Stargate twist on the Atlantis mythology, the opening 2-parter of SG-1 sort of puts the Stargate twist on the Merlin and King Arthur mythology. … The big twist — I hope that I’m not giving too much away — is that Merlin, the magician, was actually an Ancient. And that’s where the ‘magic’ part of his abilities came from.”

For the writing team, the show’s ninth season and necessary cast changes have allowed them to in many ways create a new show after wrapping up major story arcs in Season Eight. “We saw ‘Reckoning’ one and two and ‘Threads’ and ‘Moebius’ as the end of a chapter of the series,” Cooper said. “And now Season Nine is going to begin a new chapter. And we’re very excited about it. There’s a renewed energy among the returning cast, and a whole new energy that the new cast is bringing. And everyone involved with the show, I think, is the happiest we’ve ever been.”

The all-new year of adventures premieres July 15 on The SCI FI Channel! Stay tuned for GateWorld’s full report from the April convention in Vancouver.