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Brad Wright: MGM Wants To Keep Stargate Alive

Seven years after Stargate left the airwaves the man who co-created the shows’ fictional television universe is optimistic about where the franchise might go in the future.

Brad Wright appeared on stage this morning at the Gatecon fan convention in Vancouver, chatting with fans and answering questions for more than an hour. A couple of times the subject turned from reminiscing to where Stargate is at now.

“I’m very happy to be able to say that MGM has a nice renewed interest in the franchise,” Wright said to fans. “And we have started talking again.”

Fans have lobbied the studio to bring back a live-action Stargate production for years, reaching a crescendo this spring with an ongoing campaign calling for a new, in-canon series — one set in the universe established by Wright and fellow series creators Jonathan Glassner (Stargate SG-1) and Robert C. Cooper (Atlantis and SGU).

Wright spoke to fans at Gatecon: The Invasion on Saturday morning.

Might even a fourth show created by Wright himself be in the cards? While it’s a great sign that MGM is talking with him about Stargate again, Brad was quick to note that they weren’t taking such a step just yet.

“It’s not that we’re going to be making a series any time soon,” he said. “It’s just that they now acknowledge the existence of this thing they have in their library that did very well for them — and could again, potentially.

“So they want to keep it alive. They know it needs to be kept alive. It is a powerful franchise for them.”

That renewed attention to the Stargate franchise on the part of MGM will extend to a number of different things, perhaps including more releases of composer Joel Goldsmith’s beautiful score for the three Stargate series (which was the topic of the question that elicited Brad’s comments). But he is also hopeful that it may mean “also going forward with something else, at some point.”

After chatting on stage with Stargate’s veteran director Martin Wood, Wright made his exit — leaving fans with another word of hope for new projects down the road.

“Keep coming back to Stargate,” he said. “Because, fingers crossed, it will continue in the future.”

Stick with GateWorld for lots of pictures and full coverage of Gatecon in the days ahead! Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates through Sunday.

Darren

Darren created GateWorld in 1999 and is the site's managing editor. He lives in the Seattle area with his wife and three spin-off Stargate fans.

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  • SG-1 was an outstanding project for the first 7 years - explore the galaxy, against a nebulous enemy, discovering and interacting with other world populations which are based on specific earth cultures and histories.
    The ORI line of the last few years was a bit of a stretch and fell into the oh-so-tired and tiring "good gods" vs "evil gods" with earth caught in the middle. Still some of what made its first years good (exploring and dealing with ancient civilizations) was there, and, even without Jack and General Hammond (huge losses, to be sure) the new additions to the cast, eventually, were OK.

    Atlantis wasn't SG-1 by any means, the main antagonist were so, so, so contrived as to be laughable more than fearful, the cast took some serious time to grow on you (they spent most of the first year trying to be SG-1 before they finally just fell into a groove that made more sense for their new series). The camaraderie of the mains was never quite as good as that of the SG-1 team, and even though the story lines improved, Atlantis never really became that show that "you just had to see" this week, and certainly wasn't (and didn't) go even close to being a 10-year series.

    SGU was....TERRIBLE. Badly casted. Badly storied. Bad, bad, bad. It put a bad taste in the mouths of SG fans and killed the possibility of other projects and the franchise (at least for the time)

    I think the real problem with the SG franchise is that they tried to be Star Trek-ish. SG-1 was STTOS/STTNG, "exploring new world and seeking out new civilizations". Atlantis was Voyager - stranded far from home, organized and rebel coming together for a common goal, "diversity" to appeal to an increasingly PC culture, but hot chicks in tight or revealing clothing to keep the sci-fi-fanboys around.
    And Universe was DS-9...not so much in the story arc, but definitely in the "internal conflicts and power struggles" department. Yuk. At least the ST-DS9 creators figured out nobody liked that and turned the show around into a multi-civilization remote battleground with 'earthlings' being forced to choose between good and evil and fight for it, instead of always being able to solve things (mostly) diplomatically with only minor casualties - because religious and cultural ideology trumps logic and peace: the series spoke to our own conflicts in the world.
    "Universe" never made the switch, was too dark with no reason for the darkness, and died. The only regret is that they made Universe in the first place - because it probably killed the possibility of several planned projects, AND will likely be the bad taste in the mouth that keeps a franchise reboot from gaining a foothold.

  • Big, big dissapoiment! no news! this was it for me! even if they say yes to new stuff. i am off. better watch overvill and stuff that is available. by, by

  • @Paul
    SGU is scifi history. It is different in tone and pace, but it is an integral part of the franchise, and one of the best scifi stories ever brought to TV.

    Without the economic crisis, it would not have been cancelled, and together with the also cancelled DVD movies, it would have lifted the franchise to a whole new level.

  • I liked SG1 a lot but Atlantis was a a lot better, it was upbeat funny, Just a real joy to watch, Really you could fly Atlantis from earth and return it from whee it came and reboot the series. I would watch it every week for the next 20yrs+++

  • Boo, Paul, and yeah!....what Nekomajin said! SGU was a truly worthy follow-up - I wept when it was cancelled. Although I DO agree with Paul about SG-Atlantis. It never did much for me.

  • I would like to see a series where the Stargate has gone public. In the beginning of SGU we saw some interesting stuff with the Trust/Lucian Alliance, and their ballsy espionage on Earth/Earth projects. The end of SG1 witnessed a huge power vacuum left in the Milky Way which must set an interesting stage for the SG universe ten years later. I would like to see Earth perspective as well as Non-Earth. And can we scale up? Like Earth could have most of its military in a space force made up of Daedalus class ships... Maybe some Imperialist themes?? Earth fleet explores a few new galaxies, and being too cocky picks a wrong fight? Lots of playing room.

  • SGU still has the potential to be the best SyFy show on any platform ever. Movies, TV, Streaming, whatever, just forget the comic books and get it on a screen! It has legs still and an obvious opening to the cliffhanger ending. It's easily the Stargate franchise platform to resolve every hanging tidbit on all the shows. They come out of suspended animation, reconnect with Stargate Command years later and get all the answers to every hangnail that's bugging everyone about every series. A giant streamathon to reacquaint anyone, old lovers and new viewers alike in every show. Let's get it done! It's too good to go to waste languishing on the shelf!

  • A ***fourth*** show? There have been five already: SG-1, Infinity, Atlantis, Universe, and Origins. Whatever one may think of each one's quality, they were all undeniably shows.

    In any case, Origins was godawful. If MGM wants to keep the franchise going, they need to do a better job of it.

  • Well Brad created three, so it would be a fourth created by him.

    Infinity and Origins are also categorically different forms of productions. And he was involved in neither.

  • Any new series has to be a continuation of SG1 seasons 1 through 8 ie The Next Generation. So no more Wraith or Ori. The enemy has to be the Goa'uld. The setting will probably be offworld for the series growth factor, which wouldn't make sense storywise having a Stargate program on Earth under Cheyenne Mountain as then you wouldn't be able to call in air support through the stargate--I noticed SG1 showed the Alpha Site having a runway. Let's suppose the stargate really existed for a moment. Wouldn't the air force/US military develop a fighter plane or something that could shoot through the stargate? Or even a tank?

    Lastly, if the series has starships, I sincerely hope they have a Egyptian/Goa-uld vibe to them. This is Stargate, not Startrek. One of the things I most liked about Stargate was the setting of a modern world and having to conform to the limitations of that modern world. Clear case in point: we don't have starships today. So the only logical way this show having them is if we heavily burrowed the technology to make them, salvaged/stole them.

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