Stargate Writers Have Teamed-Up For A Brand New Sci-Fi Series
Stargate writers are teaming up!
This article is more than 2 years old
Two of the primary writers of the Stargate franchise are joining together for a new show. Dean Devlin, who co-wrote the original 1994 Stargate film with director Roland Emmerich, has partnered with Jonathan Glassner, who executive produced Stargate SG-1 and wrote many episodes, for a new Syfy series. According to Deadline, the Syfy network has greenlit a 12 episode run of The Ark, a dystopian future series to be show-run by Glassner and executive produced by both. It is something of a generational team-up from different principal members of the Stargate franchise for a brand new property.
Their new show The Ark will take place approximately a century from now. Off-planet colonization missions have now become a necessity for the survival of the human race. Presumably either the ecological devastation or some kind of global disaster has made it necessary to seek other planets capable of supporting human life, which is where the titular ark comes in.
One of these colony ships, called Ark One, will experience an unspecified accident that puts the mission in risk. Now that there is more than a year left before reaching their destination and with dwindling resources, the crew will have to marshall themselves to survive. It definitely has some vibes of the Stargate franchise, with interstellar travel and definitely a hint of Stargate Universe in a lone ship risking its survival in deep space.
Aside from their respective work on the Stargate franchise, both Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner have extensive resumes in television and film work. Along with co-writing the original Stargate film (which starred Kurt Russell and James Spader), Devlin had quite the run of blockbusters in the 1990s. He also co-wrote the global blockbuster alien invasion film Independence Day (which you know, Welcome to Earth) and in 1998 the American reboot of Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick. For his part, Glassner has written, directed and/or produced television shows for decades. Prison Break, multiple CSI series and The Outer Limits are all part of his body of work.
In recent years, there have been some attempts to revive the Stargate franchise as a television series. It appears to be one of those properties that is always up in the air, but has a ready fan base looking for some kind of reboot. Just last year, there was some furor as it seemed the television arm of the franchise was about to disappear from all streaming services. It appears many of the shows are available to purchase individual episodes from Apple, while Stargate: Atlantis is streaming in full on Hulu.
This is a pretty good time to be launching a new science fiction series. With superhero movies utterly dominating the box offices of the world, and Amazon putting out new science fiction films like The Tomorrow War, there is definitely a market out there for original content in that vein. And with The Ark, presumably Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner won’t have to deal with any pesky Stargate font issues. But we’ll just have to see if there’s a Richard Dean Anderson cameo coming our way.
