Roland Emmerich will direct a rebooted trilogy of Stargate feature films, produced by Dean Devlin.
Oh, good.
If those names sound familiar, they should. Emmerich co-wrote and directed the 1994 feature film Stargate, which Devlin produced and also co-wrote. The film was planned as the start of a trilogy, but instead spawned a Showtime and then Syfy series with two spinoffs — and no Devlin and Emmerich in sight.
Now the original film’s creative team is back to bring us their original vision, only jettisoning 14 years of groundbreaking television in the process.
The duo have been pursuing a return to the Stargate world for years, even before the last TV series was canceled, but MGM reportedly wanted the televised adventures to run their course. Stargate SG-1 spawned Stargate Atlantis, which was followed by Stargate Universe, which was canceled in 2011. There was also an animated series, Stargate Infinity, which was set in the future in relation to the other shows but didn’t really fit in with them.
Now they’re all presumably wiped away, like so much Star Wars Expanded Universe “Legends” non-canon material. That’s not really a fitting end for something that reinvigorated the then-Sci Fi Channel when there wasn’t much in the way of serious science fiction adventure on the small screen.
Hopefully, the filmmakers will see fit to honor the legacy of something that outgrew their contributions — but I wouldn’t bet on it.
