These days, Christopher Judge is best known for playing Kratos in the God of War video games, but there’s a select group of science fiction fans who still remember him fondly for playing Teal’c in Stargate: SG-1 (a show that came with filming struggles). The Stargate franchise has been mostly dormant for more than a decade now, with the only major release in that period being the web series Stargate: Origins that was later recut into a movie. However, Judge has been trying to get a Teal’c spinoff going for years now, and he opened up about its Black Panther-like premise, as well as shared why it hasn’t gotten off the ground.
Judge stopped by Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum to talk about his personal and professional lives with the title host. When Rosenbaum asked the actor if he’d consider returning to Stargate if the story was right, Judge said he would “consider it.” He then shared that while he was working on God of War, he and his partner start working on a Stargate SG-1 spinoff series, and the pitch made it through “three different regimes” at MGM. He continued:
This spinoff was about what happened to Teal’c and his race of freedom because at the end of the show, they’ve gained their freedom, and they now have inherited all this technology from those that they served. So what do you do? My take on it was basically… so two of the episodes I wrote were about the Amazonian mythology, so it would be Stargate’s take on the Amazonian mythology. So I pitched Stargate’s take on Black Panther. So we as this enslaved people now had our freedom, inherited this technology, and how we became this culturally and technologically advanced society. So what burden comes with that? Do you help other people or do you keep it to yourself, right? And so three regimes loved it, and then we were bought by Amazon.
For those who need context, Teal’c is a Jaffa, i.e. an genetically modified human who has an abdominal pouch that’s used as an incubator for a larval Goa’uld, an alien parasite that take control of a host’s body and mind once they’re fully matured. While these creatures give the Jaffa abilities like enhanced strength and a longer lifespan, when Stargate SG-1 began, they’d been enslaved to the Goa’uld and also served as their soldiers. These larval Goa’uld were also crucial to a Jaffa’s immune system, and if one was removed, they’d die unless a new larva was implanted, although the drug Tretonin later fixed that problem.
Teal’c defected from his Goa’uld master Apophis at the beginning of Stargate SG-1, and as the series continued, he inspired other Jaffa to rebel against these sinister aliens. By the time the Goa’uld were defeated, the Jaffa were able to finally to forge a society all their own, and that’s what Christopher Judge has been looking to explore in-depth with this Stargate spinoff. The comparison to Black Panther is definitely apt, because as we’ve seen from reading the comics and watching the Marvel movies in order, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, with gadgets and devices that are on par with alien technology. But like Judge pointed out, in this instance, the Jaffa were inheriting the Goa’uld’s technology, so that adds another layer of complexity that would make this an interesting Stargate show to watch.
However, the actor then implied that Amazon buying MGM is the reason his Teal’c-centric spinoff has been stalled, if not outright scrapped. That’s a shame, because that would make a worthy piece of programming to stream with a Prime Video subscription. Hell, I’ll take the Stargate franchise being revived in any form on that platform. Rest assured, we’ll let you know if that happens.
