New season to premiere July 15

Brand new seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis will air on Friday, July 15 on The SCI FI Channel, the network has announced.

New cast members Ben Browder (“Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell”) and Beau Bridges (“General Hank Landry”) will join SG-1 in Season Nine, which premieres at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific. Guest stars including Claudia Black (“Vala,” first seen in Season Eight’s “Prometheus Unbound”), Lou Gossett, Jr. (“Gerak,” a Jaffa leader who vies for political control in the new Free Jaffa Nation), and Lexa Doig (“Dr. Carolyn Lam,” the S.G.C.’s new chief medical officer) will also make multiple appearances.

Stargate Atlantis kicks off its sophomore year at 9 p.m. on July 15. Newcomer Jason Momoa will join the regular cast in the third episode, playing Ronon Dex — a former soldier from a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy who has been hunted by the Wraith for the past seven years. Actor Rainbow Sun Francks‘s “Lt. Aiden Ford” will be a recurring character this season, appearing in at least three or four episodes.

Actor Mitch Pileggi will make his first appearance as Colonel Steven Caldwell, commander of the Earth battlecruiser Daedalus, in the season premiere, “The Siege, Part 3.” He is currently contracted to appear in five episodes of Atlantis and has filmed four so far, the actor told GateWorld.

SCI FI Friday companion show Battlestar Galactica will also make its second season premiere on July 15, rounding out the night at 10 p.m. The series was SCI FI’s highest-rated program during the winter season.

SCI FI is expected to air 10 episodes during the summer season, from July 15 into September. The second half of the season should begin airing in January.

Sky One in the U.K. is also expected to begin airing the new seasons this fall, with stations in other countries soon to follow.