Before Roland Emmerich became known for large-scale films that had a tendency to destroy the planet, he and his production partner made a little science fiction movie called Stargate. Now, it looks like a reboot of that film may happen, but the difference here is that the original creators plan to do it themselves. And one of the men responsible for the original Stargate says that in order to make the trilogy that they had always planned on, they need to just start over at the beginning.
When the original Stargate came out in 1994 it was always meant to be the first part of a film trilogy. However, after MGM obtained the rights to the property, they went on to create a number of TV series without input from the film's creators, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. Since the first series, Stargate SG-1, used the original film as its launching point, Dean Devlin tells Variety that the only way to go back and make the film trilogy that they want is to reboot the entire thing.
It's not a story that can take place 20 years later. So the only way to really tell that trilogy is to go back from the beginning and start the story all over again. It was taken away from us, and it's tough to have your children raised by other parents, even if they do a very good job. ... For us, it's not putting down what has been done. It's to let us finish telling our story.
Even if Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich wanted to ignore the TV series and make a direct sequel to the original Stargate, all the characters would be 20 years older and, for whatever reason, Devlin says that wouldn't work with the story they want to tell. As much as we'd love to see a modern day James Spader in a Stargate movie, hopefully with his Raymond Reddington hat in tow, we can understand how that might be difficult to pull off.
It's clear from Dean Devlin's comments that he doesn't seem to have a problem with the direction that Stargate SG-1 took. The issue is simply that it wasn't what he and Roland Emmerich had planned. That show was fine, but now they want to tell their story.
We'll say this much: with all of the sequels, franchises, and reboots that are happening at the movies, the Stargate reboot would be unique in that the original creators will be involved. If there's ever a completely justifiable reason to reboot a franchise, this would be it. Even the most cynical movie fan would likely give this one a chance; we're certainly curious what the original creators had in mind for these characters.
Are you excited for a potential new Stargate trilogy? Sound off in the comments.
