Former Stargate writer-producer Joseph Mallozzi maintains high confidence that Stargate will be back, eventually. “Stargate will come back,” he wrote on his blog. “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”
Mallozzi joined the writer’s room in Stargate SG-1‘s fourth season, and after would go on to write and executive produce for spin-offs Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. Today he says that production of a new Stargate series is “inevitable.”
“Studios are in the business of making money, and the Stargate franchise was one of MGM’s biggest moneymakers,” Mallozzi wrote this week. “There is no way they’re just going to allow it lie fallow indefinitely.”
What the franchise will need to make a return is the right idea, the right creator, the right distribution outlet — and the right timing.
Mallozzi said that changes at the company in recent years has led to changes in the studio’s production strategy. “That has no doubt delayed things — as has, I suspect, a cautious approach to a relaunch,” he said. And because the Stargate franchise is such an important part of MGM’s library, “they want to be absolutely sure that the series they are going to green light has as much opportunity to succeed as possible. They need to be sure. And that takes time.”
While a fourth live-action Stargate series — set in the universe created by Brad Wright, Jonathan Glassner, and Robert C. Cooper — was too much to hope for when SGU went off the air in May of 2011, the television landscape has changed a great deal in recent years. Netflix paved the way for streaming services willing to invest big dollars in original content. Things have only heated up since then, with new services just launched by Disney and Apple, and Warner Media and NBC Universal about to enter the fray.
The streaming wars are in full swing. CBS has a growing Star Trek universe; Disney+ has Star Wars and Marvel. DC Universe has its own pantheon of comic book heroes, and Amazon is about to debut a new season of the hit science fiction drama The Expanse — picked up from Syfy Channel for at least two more seasons. (Amazon also has new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time coming down the pipe in a few years.)
These new players in the TV business are driving the need for new, marquee content, Mallozzi said. “And, truly, what is more marquee than a crown jewel franchise that spawned over three hundred episodes of television?”
So who wants to add Stargate, its 350+ hours of content, and its international fan base to its library?
A new, in-canon series could allow some measure of resolution to past storylines. From “Blockade”
To help showcase fans’ ongoing interest in new, in-canon Stargate content Mallozzi is spearheading a social media campaign to make some noise. The campaign’s goal is to let MGM — and the executives at potential broadcast or streaming homes — know that Stargate’s 25-year-old fan base is still very much alive, active, and eager for new content.
A new series that is set in the Wright-Glassner-Cooper universe would respect the 17 seasons of established canon, both appealing to existing fans and also giving new viewers and accessible point to get on board.
As with the previous campaign in March of 2018, the organizers’ goal is to maximize participation and get the designated hashtag trending by calling on Stargate fans worldwide to post during a single hour.
Under the nickname “Stargate Superdrive,” the tweet storm is scheduled for Friday, December 6 at 6 p.m. Pacific time, 9 p.m. Eastern. (In Europe and the United Kingdom, that’s 2 a.m. GMT on Saturday morning.)
A second tweet storm is being planned for Europe’s time zones, with its own build-up and launch date to be announced.
A unique hashtag will be unveiled by Mallozzi and the campaign’s organizers 15 minutes before the hour. Participants are asked to use only this hashtag on tweets during the hour, as apparently Twitter’s algorithms for trending topics ignores tweets with multiple hashtags.
Last year’s campaign reportedly saw more than 100,000 tweets sent on its first night alone, with some 76 million total timeline impressions across the platform.
Mallozzi suggested that he is confident that studio executives at MGM will notice when fans make noise, and demonstrate their hunger for a new, in-canon Stargate production.
“The last tweet storm worked,” he said. “No, it didn’t immediately result in a new series, but I believe it did get the ball rolling in that direction. … I like to think that it was, perhaps, one of the factors that led them to finally see the light and realize: ‘Hey, Brad Wright created and oversaw seventeen years of our most successful franchise next to Bond. We really should be talking to him about new Stargate.'”
Stargate’s TV co-creator Brad Wright said back in January that he is working with MGM on developing some sort of new Stargate project. (Watch the recap video below for that story.) But the studio has remained mum throughout 2019 — and even announced the forthcoming closure of its official Stargate streaming platform, Stargate Command.
Where in the development cycle Wright’s project is today is anyone’s guess. The studio has a track record of keeping its cards (extraordinarily) close to the vest, and so we don’t expect any public revelations from MGM itself until the ink is dry on all the necessary contracts. But if Stargate Command is no longer an option for distribution, the looming question is just where such a show — or Web series, or mini-series, or movie, or puppet show, or garage band (we really don’t know) — will end up going.
That’s why another fan campaign makes sense in December 2019. The studio is already well aware of Stargate fandom’s active engagement online. And it’s fair to say that the decision-makers inside the historic studio are also aware of the intense disappointment felt when 2018’s Stargate Origins was followed up by nothing but silence.
So who needs convincing? Likely not MGM (though a loud reminder every now and again can’t hurt), but rather the decision-makers at a streaming service, cable channel, or broadcast outlet who might end up in a room being pitched a new Stargate project.
“Is there still an audience for this?”
Is Stargate an artifact of television history, or a living, breathing franchise that will continue to pay dividends to all its investors?
Gaters, it’s time to get noisy.
On Twitter: @BaronDestructo, @StargateNow
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Europe has at least 3 different timezones so it'll be 2am in the UK and Ireland, 3am from Brussels up to Copenhague and down to Paris and Barcelona, and 4am along the line of Bukarest and everything above and below that.
Smack in the middle of the night therefore not a global "superdrive"... Good luck, trending on a continent that's asleep.
If streaming service is the future, let me point out this little known fact... The rest of the world doesn't have access to the USA's wide variety of options. If Stargate Command has taught you a lesson, it should be that you loose half your audience, and don't even reach another large portion of a potential audience.
Where's the profit in that?
As to new stargate .... in a distant future... yeah maybe... who knows... no one but MGM does.
Good luck with your drive but don't come whining when no one acknowledges it ever happening. And Stargate Command doesn't make the decisions here. MGM's the boss.
If you read his blog post, he said there will be two twitter drives to account for the timezone differences; one for North America and one for Europe.
Also, you don't know more than Joe or this website, so please don't be a downer and act like you know the business.
According to the Twitter people, this is the only one happening. Europeans asked and were told there's only one (to maximize the impact). So, I'm not entirely sure where Darren is getting his info from.
Joe's blog, yesterday or the day before, states a second campaign for Europe. Unlike last year, however, he says they don't want to do them on back-to-back days (so that the two hashtags don't detract from one another, I suppose).
That's what DVR is for.
@Rivka
I think you're misunderstanding what's about to happen: a) there is no new stargate show. That's just speculation on Mallozzi's part. b) if there's a new show and it appears on TV, I don't have to worry about DVR'ing because I'll download it illegally anyway (I'm not in the US). c) this is about a tweetstorm happening friday night, which is setting social media aka twitter's algorithms on fire by bombarding it with a specific hashtag in order to try to make it trend.
My only hope is that he already knows something, and he wants to strengthen the fandom by organizing an action, which brings success in short time.
Bring back SGU! We deserve a decent conclusion to such an awesome series.
That will never happen. The show didn't have a large enough audience to justify it.
So how exactly do these tv companies know how many people are watching the show!? Because to me it seems unlikely and even borderline illegal on privacy laws worldwide.
Love the show can't wait
Make a new series with this Guys and it will be an instant impact:
O'Neill, Jackson, Cadwell, Carter, Tellford, Sheppard, Asgards. Forget Cam, Vala, the Ori, Woolsey, Wallace, bring back the Ancients, not just for an episode but for an entire series.
That would be a bad basis for a show.
Well. they killed the franchise with the depression inducing 'SG Universe'
What a nonsense. If you dont like it it doesnt mean that SGU is bad.
This show is as beautiful as the previous ones SGA and SG-1.
And just because you disagree doesn't make it nonsense. The show never had a big audience, so it's clear a lot of people agree with Lama.
Stargate Universe might not have been a hit, but that's not what killed the franchise. MGM killed it by no exploiting its potential when they had the chance to do so.
There were people who liked Universe. I was not one of them and couldn't finish even the first season, whereas I have rewatched SG-1 and Atlantis multiple times.
This doesn't mean that Universe killed the franchise, but it undoubtedly is the reason for the extended period of time that has passed with no new show on the drawing board.
Just do it! there are demand for new stargate.
I would prefer CW over Netflix or other streaming service. It seems that CW tend to build franchise series (arrowers, vampire stuff (diary, orginals, legacies) even the 100 get their spin off!!! They (and us) need good space/adventure opera!
Would love to see some of the main casts of the various series brought back.
In my personal opinion, I am tired of waiting on MGM to do anything with stargate to the point if something new comes out I refuse to watch it, enough of us do that they will have to listen.
No! No! No! Heck NO! No StarGate! Don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of SG and it literally changed my life, but I don't want any StarGate for at least another 15 years. Why, you might ask... Well, the Hollywood and studios are so ***** woke that it would just **** all over the franchine and our beloved characters with their woke strong-female-alphabet-white-man-bad agenda. Just like we are seeing with Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Men, Terminator, Ocean's, MiB, Predator, all those smaller shows like Supergirl, Batwoman(FFS!!!), Watchmen and since ep4 - Mandalorian as well. This is not the time for creative people to produce good content. Expanse is truly a unicorn and there is no way we would get two good sci-fi shows at the same time(and we still have no idea what the 4th season will truly look like, the books got woke, from what I've heard by Nerdrotic). The BSG is already in works(and that as a masterpiece!), it will be a distaster, I bet my life on it. So plese, do not even think of touching SG IP for at least a decade, or two, until all that woke **** brainwashing degenerate propaganda dies off and we MAYBE can back to good storytelling and freedom of creative ideas. I am warning you, do not push SG reboot right now, it will crash and burn and you will be truly sorry. Save SG by not talking about it. It is flying under the radar, for now, and that is great. Don't screw it up people.
Wow... I guess you can't handle female characters very well, I guess.
I guess you didn't like Carter and Vala then, or Elizabeth or Teyla...
Thank you. You just literally proved my point ?
Not a clue how I did that, but okay... whatever you say... I bet it has something to with "social engineering though and transhumanism vs quality writing"... or some such nonsense. ;)