Michael Shanks Just Revealed What Amazon’s Canceled ‘Stargate’ Series Actually Would Have Been About
The ‘Stargate‘ franchise has spent years hoping for a proper continuation, and when Amazon MGM Studios greenlit a new series from showrunner Martin Gero, it finally looked like fans were about to get one. That hope came crashing down in June, when Amazon abruptly pulled the plug on the project despite it having already completed a full writers room and entered pre-production in the UK.
The cancellation sparked one of the more persistent fan campaigns in recent franchise memory, complete with a Change.org petition, a banner plane over Amazon MGM’s Culver City lot, and public support from original cast members including Robert Patrick. Nearly three months later, that campaign hasn’t slowed down, and neither has the appetite for information about what exactly got scrapped.
That appetite was finally rewarded this weekend. Michael Shanks, who played Dr. Daniel Jackson across ‘Stargate SG-1,’ confirmed at the Ascension Con convention in Birmingham that he had been attached to reprise the role in Gero’s new series, and additional plot details have now surfaced revealing just how ambitious the canceled show was meant to be.
According to reporting from Dial the Gate host David Read, who gathered details from his own contacts within the studio, the series was set to unfold in an alternate reality separate from the one established across the original franchise. Daniel Jackson, still the character fans know from the existing continuity, would have found himself thrust into this new reality aboard a new United States Air Force vessel called the Argo, part of a previously unseen class of Earth ships known as the BC-307.
That ship, with Jackson aboard, would have ended up in orbit around an alternate version of Earth, with the fate of the rest of its crew left unknown. In this alternate reality, the Stargate program itself would not have followed the same path fans are familiar with, and the gate wouldn’t have even been activated until several episodes into the season.
Shanks wasn’t going to be the only familiar face making a return, either. Read’s reporting indicates that more than half a dozen actors from across the franchise were expected to appear during the first season in recurring or guest roles, with some playing alternate versions of their characters and others, like Jackson, carrying over directly from the original continuity. No additional names have been confirmed at this stage.
The planned season also had a defined shape before it was scrapped. That first season was expected to run 10 episodes, a detail that lines up with what Gero himself had previously indicated earlier in the year about the scope of the project.
Taken together, the plan suggests Gero and his team were trying to use the alternate-reality concept as a new entry point into the franchise, one flexible enough to bring in new viewers while still staying tethered to decades of established lore through Jackson’s presence. That balancing act may ultimately be what did the project in. Amazon reportedly canceled the series over concerns that it leaned too heavily on longtime fans without offering enough of an on-ramp for broader audiences, according to details shared by Stargate-Fusion.
Whether any of these ideas ever resurface in a future ‘Stargate’ project remains uncertain, especially with Gero still under an overall deal at Amazon MGM Studios developing other work. For now, fans are left piecing together the shape of a show that came agonizingly close to happening.
Would You Have Watched Amazon’s Canceled Stargate Series?
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!
