The long night is nearly over, as MGM has announced today that it plans to re-open the Stargate with a new original, live-action series.
Stargate Origins will help to launch the studio’s new digital platform and fan experience, suitably called “Stargate Command.” The subscription service will be the show’s exclusive home, as well as providing fans with additional content, developed for streaming to any device — television, phone, tablet, etc.
First, the show itself: Stargate Origins is a 10-episode digital series, which will explore the untold backstory of Catherine Langford — who first appeared in the 1994 feature film and then in Stargate SG-1‘s first season. “Young Catherine embarks on an unexpected adventure to unlock the mystery of what lies beyond the Stargate in order to save Earth from unimaginable darkness.”
Catherine’s character was present as a young child at the discovery of the Stargate in Giza in 1928, and she worked throughout her life to get the Stargate program going — facing numerous obstacles and international intrigue all through the twentieth century. (Come back tomorrow for GateWorld’s special look at Catherine’s life!)
Origins will fill in more of her important story, shining light on the events leading up to SG-1’s own beginning.
Ten episodes will run for approximately 10 minutes each, made to be digital-friendly and adding up to a single story the length of a TV movie. (Assuming that Catherine’s story is completed here future seasons could, in theory, explore other corners of the Stargate universe in the manner of an anthology.)
Mercedes Bryce Morgan
The subscription-based Stargate Command platform is meant to be MGM’s new home for the franchise and its fans, offering exclusive content not only from the production of SGO but also from the franchise’s 20-year history. MGM regards the project as a way to give back to Stargate’s fans.
“We’ve been eager to revisit the Stargate franchise and create an all-new story that honors the founding mythos and gives loyal fans more mystery and adventure,” MGM’s President of Digital & New Platforms Kevin Conroy said. “We view Stargate Origins as a thank you to fans who have been keeping the spirit of the franchise alive for nearly 25 years. With the increasing popularity of digitally native content that can be streamed to any device, MGM is committed to the production of premium linear mid-form content and are proud to launch with Stargate Origins.”
Stargate Command will have both free elements and paid content for subscribers. The studio also hopes to make the platform available to the fan community worldwide, though international plans are still being hammered out. Expect updates on both of these fronts soon.
News broke at the Stargate SG-1 celebration panel, taking place right now at San Diego Comic-Con (story).
Origins will be the fourth live-action, scripted series for the Stargate television franchise, which spans twenty years and more than 350 episodes. The most recent television incarnation, Stargate Universe, aired on Syfy Channel for two seasons and left the airwaves in May of 2011.
Pre-production on Stargate Origins is already underway and cameras are slated to begin rolling in August. The Stargate Command platform is aiming for a fall 2017 launch, though there is no word just yet on a premiere date for the series. (But note that the poster below shows “Coming 2017.”)
GateWorld will continue to be your first stop for all Stargate Origins news, full episode coverage, commentary, and analysis as the new show enters production! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook now to keep up with all the latest.
UPDATE: Watch the 30-second teaser video!
NEXT: Read the full press release
Okay.
A live-action series. That was so far beyond my wildest hopes.
But it’s a webseries. Made up of 10-minute episodes. That doesn’t sound like… the best of ideas.
And it’s a prequel, which from the sound of it might not distinguish itself as part of either continuity (film or TV). This makes me further hesitant.
I guess all I can do for now is wait. And take deep breaths. Oh my god. It could be coming back, for real. If this does good.
But there’s just so much they could screw up.
Im assuming the Stargate Command platform will be available worldwide?
Catherine didn’t got through the Star Gate until her mission with SG1 to save Ernest. So not really sure what this great adventure she’s supposed to have to find out what’s behind the Star Gate before the days of SG1…??? Still, good to hear a new show is on the way, but a mini web-series is not what I want. Stargate Universe needs a closure, and Atlantis is parked outside San Francisco, that needs a closure too. A new proper T.V. series would be much more welcome.
Hooray, it’s some some damnable mobile game! That said, I have to share in the trepidation above. I don’t know quite what to make of this. If it’s going to be about Langford, then I guess that makes this a mid-20th century period piece? And what exactly is it going to cover? We know there’s a long period of currently empty time between when the gate was discovered and opened, so there’s plenty of room. But outside of politicking around the stargate, I’m not sure what else could have happened? And since it’s a prequel, it means no gate travel.… Read more »
How is that “better than ever”? (quoting from the opening of the official stargate podcast).
Happy that Stargate is back… But I fail to see how that’s better than a prime time TV series?
This is so exciting. I have been waiting forever for some kind of stargate to come out… I miss it like crazy! I hope this is MGMs way of testing the fan base so if there is enough interested then they will bring a prime time show back on tv. Maybe get even lucky to have them resurrect SG-U I notice they revived the series in a comic book format. This is baby steps everybody to get stargate back up and running in the way we all want it! #stargatefan #stargateorgins
#stargateorigins I misspelled it… oops
Something is better than nothing, so do you think a channel like Scify would eventually pick it up?
Best TV news I’ve heard in a long time. As far as her never going through the gate goes for all we know she did, had a big adventure and banged her head on the DHD on her way out of the gate and forgot it all. We have seen sometimes going through the gate can be a rather bad experience on the other end…
I think @vegas16969 is right. MGM, or anyone, would not want to invest in something without testing the water first. SGU was great but ratings is what sells it to the studios. I’m personally going to wait until they are all released and binge watch them in one go!
BTW, great work @Darren in keeping this site and the interest in SG going since SGUs demise in 2011. There aren’t many shows and sites that can keep the fans interested when there is no current show format on the box!
Cheers,
Mo
UK
Always come back every now and then to have a quick flick though. Noticed the annoucement on IGN so my first thoughts were to come here :)
10 min webisodes (if done well) can be cool, look at Mortal Kombat. If it does well, it could be MGM way of testing the water for Star Trek Streaming show.
Well….that was dissapointing
I’m glad for new Stargate, but this is basically a movie that they’re cutting into ten pieces and then charging is eight bucks a month as they drip out the episodes. And it seems ambiguous as to whether it’s in the tv universe or the movie universe and if it’s in the tv universe, they either can’t go through the gate or there’s gonna need to be some major retconning. I guess in the end I’m happy there’s gonna be more Stargate. Hopefully some of the questions about continuity and which universe it’s set in or if it’s a new… Read more »
Good beginning :)
Hmmm…okay. Cautiously optimistic, but not too excited just yet. Catherine was a great character in SG1, but not sure how they can come up with stories that won’t directly contradict everything already made. Still, if this can lead to more SG1 canon material later, I’ll drop some cash on this.
As I am excited to see movement in the franchise, not sure how this will be. Like others, I would have rather have seen a proper ending to other series before they start another one they may never finish. If they are truly “testing the waters”, what happens if it’s not good enough before they finish? Another cliffhanger? And what if they put this in a pay model just to see these? Not sure how successful a “testing the waters” would be if they decide make fans pay to see them. They wouldn’t get a true feeling. To may assumptions… Read more »
Speaking of pulling something out of drydock, trying to remember what my Gateworld password was. Any whos… Do we have any actual confirmation that this is going to be in continuity with the Sg-1 universe?
I wonder, however, if this series and storyline is more set towards the original film rather than the sg1 series? After reading the article(s) about this, it just appears that this storyline is not conducive and aligning to the series continuity.
UNLESS, the writers and MGM are going to pull off a Star Trek Abrams-verse reboot scenario, and create a alternate timeline…thus leading up to a whole new Stargate series down the line… interesting.
When i first heard the news of a new Stargate series, i was filled with joy until i read the premise. I don’t know. With a name like Stargate Origins I instinctively think the premise of the show would be exploring the alliance of the four great races. Catherine Langford only traveled thru the gate in her later years and the DHD was recovered years later by the Russians. It sounds like this series may run into a lot of continuity issues at the expense of rewriting Stargate history. Nevertheless I’m exited and just like my reservations about Star Trek… Read more »
Very Excited!!!
Although, “old lady comes back in her younger days to tell the story of how she worked on founding the program”… kinda reminds me of the plot of Agent Carter.
Catherine Langforg = Peggy Carter
Stargate Command = SHIELD
Anyone else see that similarity???
Hmmm…MGM paid service… I feel like this is a really bad idea. They are using this webseries as a gauge to see if there is still interest in Stargate.Though I’m sure there is still a lot of interest from die hard fans, I feel like a lot of people who are not familiar with Stargate are not going to pay to watch theses ten 10 minute episodes. Also a lot of people are just gonna find other ways of watching these episodes. MGM’s viewership is gonna below their expectations and they are probably not gonna make anything after Origins because… Read more »
Butterfly-Revolution is right. This is going to be period costumes and Catherine aka Peggy fighting the Goa’uld infested Nazis for the Stargate, right? 10 minutes at a time. No thanks.
[…] it isn’t. Announced only a few days ago, it’s called Stargate Origins (click here to check the announcement on Gateworld.net.) It takes place…sometime before SG-1, though we […]
From the sound of it, it seems MGM has seen the lessons of TrekWars & Ghostbusters 2016 and learned from them. It would be so easy to reboot the whole thing after an extended hibernation. However, with ID4: Resurgence tanking, Emmerich and Devlin’s stock cratered faster than a Naquadah asteroid. MGM making Stargate the center of its own streaming service is something CBS should’ve done with Star Trek. And Trek has twice as much content as Stargate. At least MGM is putting one foot forward while Trek is just a cog in the wheel of CBS all Access with the… Read more »
[…] addition to Stargate Origins, MGM’s official announcement hinted that Stargate Command may become home to the nearly 400 episodes of the first three Stargate […]
There’s gotta be some adventure in the story of how the Nazis got the DHD, right?
The Russians ended up with the DHD from the Nazis, but the US – and Catherine – never even knew about it. So … not seeing the connection to her character. It seems more and more like a female lead in Raiders of the Lost DHD to me.
I’m very reserved. I’m not happy with MGM and how they have handled the Stargate franchise. If this is pay to watch for the webisodes then I will continue reading the Stargate novels and act like that doesn’t exist. I would gladly subscribe for a continuance of SG1 or Atlantis or even a reboot but I sorely dislike universe and and trying to be optimistic about this. I want more merchandise I didn’t even know Stargate apparel existed until a year ago and most of the awesome shirts are no longer made. If anyone knows where I can get a… Read more »
nrc, “The studio also hopes to make the platform available to the fan community worldwide, though international plans are still being hammered out.” We should hear more in the coming weeks.
jeremfg, I took that line in a cumulative sense: SG is out of dry-docks and we have SG-1, Atlantis, SGU, and now a fourth series (and digital service with behind-the-scenes content). But yeah, maybe overstated.
I’m not surprised at all by how MGM is handling this. I like how they are using the excuse of “digital-friendly” to explain why they chose 10 minute episodes. Really!!. There are YouTube videos that are longer than 10 minutes. Here’s my conspiracy take on it. They broke it up in as many small chucks that the felt they could get away with in order to collect more monthly subscription fees. For me, I’m going to wait until the very end and watch them all at once.
Cruce: In the case of Origins‘ first season, at least, there is no monthly subscription. The $20 is a one-time fee. MGM has also doubled- and tripled-up the release schedule, so that all ten episodes are released over just four weeks.