Report: Sanctuary Revival May Be In The Works

UPDATE [7:11 pm ET]: Deadline has deleted its report and accompanying tweet from this afternoon, which reported on development of a new Sanctuary series. Writer Dominic Patten tweeted to Amanda Tapping: “Apologies Amanda, it looks like bad information was given by trusted sources on this & a lot of miscommunication BTS.”

The original story follows below. Stay tuned for updates, should a new Sanctuary project move forward.

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Stargate’s leading lady may be heading back to Sanctuary.

Deadline reports today that Amanda Tapping is “deep in talks” to return to her role as Dr. Helen Magnus, which she played for four seasons on the Syfy Channel original series. Sanctuary executive producer and director Martin Wood and All Canadian Entertainment have struck a deal with the show’s original rights holders, The Beedie Group, and are eyeing a revival, according to the site.

Deadline does not indicate where development on the project might be, or where it might be shopped for broadcast. The report does state that producers are looking for a showrunner, with an eye toward starting production this fall.

Created by former Stargate SG-1 writer Damian Kindler (recently of Syfy’s Krypton), Sanctuary ran on Syfy from 2008 to 2011. It followed on the heels of Tapping’s ten years (plus two movies) on Stargate SG-1, and a season as a regular cast member on Stargate Atlantis. She also served as an executive producer on Sanctuary.

Tapping’s Helen Magnus is the head of one of many Sanctuaries around the globe, dedicated to protecting supernatural beings from the world (and the world from them).

The fantasy series also starred Robin Dunne, Christopher Heyerdahl (Stargate’s Todd the Wraith, as well as the Athosian Halling), Ryan Robbins (the Genii Ladon Radim on Atlantis), and in later seasons Agam Darshi (Battlestar Galactica).

Sanctuary originally began as short-form Web series in 2007 — a proof of concept for the heavy use of greenscreen sets and computer-generated effects. It launched in 2008 as a full-fledged cable television series, airing 59 episodes on Syfy before its cancellation.

“Sanctuary was truly a show that wasn’t afraid to push beyond the edges, both in terms of storytelling and visual innovation,” Wood told Deadline. “With the technology that’s available today, we look forward to further continuing to push onwards, trailblazing and making monsters.”

In addition to his producing duties, Wood directed 27 episodes of Sanctuary — nearly half of the show’s entire run — according to IMDb.

In recent years Tapping has worked full-time behind the camera, directing such series as Supernatural, Travelers, and Blindspot. She’s recently added The Flash and Batwoman to that list, and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down her directing career to return to acting full-time.

Despite the reported developments the status of the revival remains in question, however. Tapping herself tweeted this afternoon that the Deadline story is inaccurate.

Since its initial publication Deadline has revised the story from stating that Tapping is “poised to return” to “potentially poised to return.” This would seem to imply not only that negotiations are still ongoing, but that a new Sanctuary series might come with a different star attached. (Deadline uses the word “reboot.”)

More to come as we learn it.

Wood and Tapping spoke with GateWorld about the end of Sanctuary in 2012, after the final episodes had aired but before the news of its cancellation came down from the network.

“I’d love to see it return,” Tapping said in 2012. “It was never an intention to end the show after Season Four.” She said that she and Kindler had pitched a mini-series to Syfy, but at the time the show’s producers were caught between the network and Sanctuary‘s independent financiers. Syfy was happy with the show, but couldn’t pull the trigger on a fifth-season renewal before the owners had to give up their lease on the sound stage.

“There is a really good plan for what is another season,” Wood added at the time. “There’s a really good plan for a mini-series. And there is the beginning of a plan for what would be a really amazing movie. So, everything is there, from our standpoint.”

Read or listen to that 2012 interview here! And stick with GateWorld for further updates on the Sanctuary revival.