Stargate: Fans Take Action to Bring the Franchise Back!
If you’re a Stargate fan, you’ve been on one crazy ride. You watched your show reach a pinnacle of success rarely seen in science fiction television. 10 Million of us were tuning in to both Stargate SG1 and Atlantis each week in the early 2000s. Then, Atlantis was prematurely canceled and a poorly received Stargate Universe entered our homes at the start of an unexpected MGM bankruptcy.
Stargate was gone, and it felt like a rug had been yanked beneath our feet. And now we’ve been laying there on the ground in Stargate Purgatory wondering what is to come. A few times we started to get to our knees. There was that time they announced a new movie trilogy, then they created the Stargate Command streaming service complete with a Stargate Origins web series, and then Brad Wright met with MGM executives and came away with a feeling of hope and potential.
That was 18 months ago And yet here we still lie on the floor waiting for someone to pick us up. We’re waiting for MGM to come to their senses and realize they still have a flagship TV series on their hands. We are laying there with our hands outstretched waiting for creator Brad Wright to pull us up and make us whole fans again.
But what if I told you that as a fandom lying on the floor, all we simply need to do is stand up? Some of you have already started to do this, but more of us will need to join the few.
The most important thing we can do for the Stargate franchise at this point is tell the truth. If everyone understands what we are dealing with, then people in a position to make things happen will be empowered to move the franchise forward and we as fans will be in a place to support them and give them the confidence they need to take a chance on us. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about that in a moment.
The first thing that most people don’t realize is that Stargate is a unique and special science Fiction TV Franchise. With 17 seasons across 3 shows, only Star Trek and Doctor Who have more air time. And right behind Stargate is the X-files.
And all three of those other franchises are backed by CBS, BBC and FOX… all major networks. The fact that Stargate was able to be on TV for as long as it was without the backing of a major network is a testament to the fans, the writers, the studios and the networks who were brave enough to take a chance on a TV series based on a Movie that to this day still has a Rotten Score for it’s Tomato meter.
It’s amazing when you consider that Science Fiction shows rarely make it 5 seasons and some really good ones never get past the first couple.
When you think of all the great moments watching Stargate’s combined 354 episodes over those 17 seasons, think kindly of Brad Wight and Jonathan Glassner, who stuck their necks out to Showtime and then backed up their words by working hard to create a rich universe that we would fall in love with.
We’ve been critical of MGM for their handling of the franchise, but we have to thank them for being brave enough to let it go out for a spin and see what it could do in the first place. 11 Emmy Nominations later and an endless run on Saturn awards and there is no doubt that Stargate is one of the most successful science fiction franchises of all time.
Because of this, Stargate deserves the respect that Star Trek or Doctor Who receive and the franchise should have the same support, credibility and opportunity to return again. So why has it been so difficult? What’s holding the franchise back?
Brad Wright wants new Stargate. According to sources, many executives in MGM want new Stargate. Actors, writers and producers of the old series want new Stargate and the fans want new stargate. So what’s the problem? If everyone wants new Stargate, why is no one making it?
There are two reasons: Money and Confidence. And this core problem has existed since Stargate Universe went off the air and MGM filed for Bankruptcy. In our Stargate: The Definitive History of the franchise, we go deep into explaining why MGM ended up filing bankruptcy, so make sure you check out that video at www.popcast.co to get the whole story.
In the summer of 2008 the Stargate property was entering a perfect storm. Executives from MGM, SCIFI and Stargate producers sat down to discuss the future of the franchise.
Neilson ratings had been steadily declining since Atlantis’s first season, and while that decline was attributed to the rise of digital video recorders, executives and advertisers only considered the traditional rating numbers.
What we know from that meeting is that Stargate was going in a new direction. The new Battlestar Galactica TV series featured a gritty and darker shooting style and format and it was turning heads all across the industry. Coincidentally, the new Stargate Universe would also feature a more gritty and dramatic tone that seemed to mirror where the industry was going.
But with Universe taking the helm, what to do with Atlantis? Some have suggested that producers didn’t want to do two shows at once like they had with SG1 and Atlantis. And frankly no one could blame them. But the problem was that Atlantis’s story wasn’t over and the fandom wouldn’t be served by abruptly ending that series to start another one.
Luckily, SG1 already had a model of success. Stargate direct to DVD movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum earned more than $32 million and $27 million dollars respectively.
With the Atlantis fan base already energized, a couple of direct to DVD movies would not only raise a lot of money, but it would also allow for the natural conclusion of the show and fans could sigh contentedly while turning their attention to a more current and exciting chapter in Stargate Universe.
And as Brad Wright reported, what was agreed to in that meeting was a mutual agreement. And looking at it in this context, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. But two things happened that no one saw coming: The economy would crash and fans would not embrace Stargate Universe.
On Sept. 15, only a couple months after the historic and fateful Stargate meeting, Leeman Brothers, then the nation’s fourth largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy. This event would mark a turning point in the U.S. Economy that would send MGM and the Stargate franchise reeling.
It was a huge domino effect. First it was the economy, which put huge financial pressure on MGM. The 86-year-old studio had been overwhelmed with debt since a 2005 buyout, and The increased cost of shooting in Canada as a result of a falling U.S. dollar was also taking more money out of the studio’s pockets.
Then, the popularity of Netflix and arrival of Hulu would begin draining the DVD market, eliminating the profit the studio would earn making another SG1 movie and future Atlantis movies.
Even if Stargate Universe had been a success, it wouldn’t have saved MGM. But the unfortunate fan backlash who wanted more of the Stargate they were familiar with would end up being the ultimate death blow for the franchise.
The “Not Our Stargate” fan websites and message boards coupled with poor ratings for Stargate Universe would cause the SCIFI channel to cancel the show after only two seasons without allowing it to have an ending. And with lenders about to seize up to 95% of the company, MGM was in no position to find a new home for Stargate and everything came to an unsatisfactory ending.
The fans were left on the floor. MGM would eventually recover from the bankruptcy under new management, but the new CEOs were from Spyglass entertainment and the prevailing thought was to focus on movie properties instead of getting Stargate back on TV.
In fact, creditors who took over MGM wanted a slimmed down version of what it was before in hopes they could turn it into a money making studio again. A combination of unhappy fans plus the cost to start up the series again after striking all the sets were not good optics for this slimmed down version of MGM.
In 2016, Jonathan Glickman, then president of MGM, confirmed this in a Variety interview. He said they knew in 2011 the Stargate property had played itself out. Money and Confidence. The Stargate Franchise, which had been an MGM superstar, was suddenly missing both. And in this business when you lose one, the other closely follows.
There is something about the way Stargate crashed that hurt it’s legacy in the industry. Stargate, a content juggernaut behind Star trek and Dr. Who, does not get the nostalgic love and support in the entertainment community it deserves.
SyFywire.com lists Stargate SG1 as the 20th out of 25 best Science fiction series in the past 25 years. Popular Mechanics lists them as number 14 all time. Rotten Tomatoes lists them as 37th all time and Rolling Stone’s top 50 all time has them at 36. Where does Star Trek, Dr. Who and X-files show up on all these lists? Right at the top. The Prisoner? Number 6 all time? Come on.
And while most of us agree Stargate should be in everyone’s top 5 list, having the industry paint it as a middle of the road Sci-fi series continues to eat at not only MGM’s confidence, but other streaming services like Netfix, Amazon and Hulu, who could easily partner with MGM and run with a new Stargate series.
As was mentioned before, those other A-list science fiction shows have the backing of major networks. Networks who can leverage deep pockets and resources inside their network to support shows that are worth testing in the marketplace.
MGM on the other hand has to depend on successful movie revenue to be able to fund other projects like Stargate. And even though they’ve had success with movies like Creed, Creed 2 and the new Addams Family movie, if it’s not a James Bond year at MGM, the battle to succeed financially continues.
When you combine this with the fact that MGM needs financing and distribution partners for most of their projects, that means they need to convince other agencies to also have confidence in whatever property they want to produce.
And that confidence comes from a good feeling that everyone will have a positive return on investment. This is the primary reason why it has been so difficult to bring the Stargate franchise back to television.
And to be fair to MGM and other studios, networks and Streaming platforms, good science fiction is hard to produce well on a budget. Star Trek Discovery costs CBS about 8.5 million per episode. The Orville is running at around $7 million per episode. Westworld’s first season cost $10 million per episode and Game of thrones reportedly cost between $6 and $10 million per episode.
Right now MGM television’s most costly show is likely Vikings, which they share with The History channel and that reportedly costs about $4 million per episode. A high quality version of Stargate could cost almost twice as much to make, which is why MGM and their partner network, would have to feel very strongly about the success of bringing Stargate back.
Of course, the best way to gain that confidence is to not only believe that long time fans of the show will be there, but also that new fans can be brought into the franchise as well. How many fans will pay for new Stargate? This is what MGM needs to know.
Stargate fans response would be: Look no further… reboot the franchise; we are ready! But After the backlash on Stargate Universe, MGM has been low-key testing the waters to know exactly how many fans would be willing to come out of their wallets for a return of the franchise?
After six years of clawing their way out of bankruptcy, MGM decided to put the fandom to the test. They created the Stargate Command Streaming service. The service was seemingly designed to do two things. First to provide fans with exclusive content which included a new webisode series along with all of the classic Stargate. The second was to identify how many fans were still interested in Stargate and should MGM risk their meager capital on trying to revive the series.
For the low cost of $20 per year, Stargate Command would offer a membership to the streaming service plus a bunch of new content you couldn’t find anywhere else. The site launched in September 2017 and there was an excited buzz in the community.
But that initial fan flame was put out when there were major problems with the viewing experience on the new platform. And with Stargate available for viewing on Amazon and Hulu, many fans were hesitant to purchase the new streaming membership.
But then Five months later the web series Stargate Origins: Catherine aired on the streaming service as ten ten minute episodes. While there were mixed reviews on the quality of the production, fans were kind to the series, hoping there would be more where that came from.
But nothing happened. MGM was totally silent after Stargate Origins. Then a year and a half later, MGM announced that it was shutting down Stargate Command and moving to Youtube. No one on the outside knows for certain if Stargate Command was a fishing expedition for fans, but nothing else makes sense.
The number of subscribers were never made public, but we can estimate a few things to help us determine if the streaming service’s lack of paying members was the reason MGM walked away from the project. If the studio was basing fan support for the streaming service as the indicator of whether a new series would be financially beneficial, then that subscriber number was going to be very important.
Remember, during Stargate’s height of popularity, weekly episodes were bringing in as many as 10 million viewers. We can all agree MGM wouldn’t have stopped the streaming service if it had 10 million subscribers and they were pulling in 200 million dollars per year.
But if you wanted to launch a new high quality Stargate series on a streaming service, the cost would be closer to $8 million per episode. And with today’s standard 13 episode season, Stargate Command would have needed to raise at least 50 million dollars to be able to support a new series.
And at $20 a year, that magic number is 2.5 million subscribers. Non-scholarly estimates based on the number of Youtube subscribers put the actual membership number of Stargate Command somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 subscribers. Even being generous At 100,000 subscribers, earnings would only be around $2 million per year, which wouldn’t even pay for oneepisode of a quality Science Fiction TV show.
We believe that once Origins failed to drive in large amounts of new subscribers, MGM determined that there wasn’t a large enough number of the fan base willing to pay for new Stargate. And since they couldn’t afford to produce new webisodes for the streaming service, they wouldn’t continue taking people’s money and the service was canceled.
We’ve been pretty critical of MGM and their lack of communication when it comes to Stargate. Their silence has left us with the impression that they didn’t care. But the reality is that MGM is a business made up of people. Not just a corporate face. And there are a lot of people at MGM who love Stargate and want it to succeed.
We feel that their lack of communication has a simple answer. They don’t want the world to know that they don’t have faith in one of their best shows. Can you imagine MGM coming out and saying, we aren’t making new Stargate because you fans won’t support it financially?
That’s not going to happen. They aren’t going to attack the fans. But would they be wrong? We could argue that Stargate Command was not rolled out very well and should not be the determining factor for how many fans were willing to pay for new Stargate.
The reality is word got around fast in the fandom that the streaming service didn’t work very well. And a lot of people kept their wallets closed, waiting to see what would happen and continuing to watch Stargate on other streaming platforms. That would have a dramatic impact on the number of subscribers for Stargate command.
But if you were waiting to see what would happen, wouldn’t you jump in with both feet for new Stargate content? Some fans did, but others continued to wait and when the reviews for Origins were lukewarm fans didn’t show up. So if it’s true that only 100,000 people showed up for Stargate Origins after 7 years without the franchise, then could they be right?
Are there not enough fans interested in new Stargate stories? Or as a fandom did we just fail a huge test that we didn’t know we were taking? So would there be new Stargate today if we’d all flocked to the streaming service for Stargate Origins? We know MGM was actively trying to determine how big the fan base was, so the answer is absolutely yes!
MGM was looking for a reason to keep making new Stargate and not enough of the fandom showed up. So this leads us back to where we started. Laying there on the ground with our hands in the air waiting for Brad Wright or MGM to lift us back up again. Perhaps we haven’t realized how heavy we are.
We have a lot more options for viewing entertainment today than we did way back in the 2000s. Cable is quickly disappearing and we are picking and choosing what services we are willing to pay for. The reality is that if we want new Stargate, we are going to have to fight for it. We are going to have to take the initiative and grab the hands of people trying to bring Stargate back and pull ourselves up a little bit… making their job a little easier.
Creator Brad Wright is doing his part. 20 Months ago, Brad announced that he was in contact with MGM and they seemed receptive to working with him on new Stargate. Brad was careful to say not to expect a show to appear around the corner, but Stargate is important to MGM and they are working on it.
Even though the Stargate Movie Reboot was canned after Roland Emerich and the studio couldn’t agree on a direction, we believe MGM is willing to at the very least do a movie with Brad Wright based on the canon of the TV show. The evidence is compelling.
Roland Emerich was asked by Screen Rant in February if he was involved in the new Stargate Reboot? Emerich said No, Not really anymore. Yes, I’m involved, but also not… I think someone else has to do that. MGM is trying. Is Roland talking about Brad Wright? And does MGM is trying mean they haven’t given up after the missed opportunity to do the reboot in 2015?
Amanda Tapping had a lot to say after speaking to Brad Wright following his discussion with MGM. She said that MGM approached him about Stargate. She said It’s not black and white, for sure. I think it would be great to revisit it, even if it was a series of movies, like movie of the week type movies or a limited run miniseries. I don’t think that’s out of the question. I think it’s more possible now than it was say five years ago.
Tapping’s comments after talking to wright push the narrative of another movie. And this makes sense financially because a movie would be less of a commitment than committing to a TV series that would be considered a failure if it only went for one season. But if a movie could succeed, it would potentially clear the path for a new series.
On April 24th, a fan tweeted to Wright asking if he is working on anything he can talk about publicly. Brad responded by saying, I have two projects in development.. All I am going to say. Then 45 days later another fan asked him if there is any chance future Stargate is coming. Wright responded with “TRYING!”
So what can we infer from all of this? MGM and Brad wright talked about doing new Stargate. Wright, Tapping and Emmerich all seem to indicate that it would be a small project or a movie. Wright has two projects he is developing and at least one of those is for something Stargate related because he keeps saying he is trying.
Something else we noticed is the word trying is being used ALOT. Wright is Trying. MGM is trying. The trying comments almost seem frustrated as if someone is trying but there isn’t a ton of movement. It’s as if Wright is saying I am trying as hard as I can, but I can only do so much. And that is where us fans can help, but more on that in a moment.
The reality is that if Wright is working on two projects, one of them is probably NOT stargate. If MGM passes on wright and Stargate again, Brad will likely move on with the other project he is working on. Everyone agrees that for Stargate to have a real chance at a new series, creator Brad Wright needs to be part of the project.
His initial run with Stargate lasted 17 years. After a short break, he spent another 5 years of his life on Travelers. At 59 years old, who knows how much longer Wright is going to want to do this. If the current Stargate project doesn’t happen, who knows if there will be another opportunity with him
So what can we do as fans? Our combined voice is powerful. We blew the top off of Twitter during two Stargate Twitter storms organized by Stargate writer and producer Joseph Malozzi. Our fandom had Stargate trending world wide in two consecutive years.
All this was to get the attention of MGM and let them know Stargate fans are out here, waiting and ready. We believe both of those events pulled Stargate fans and the community closer together.
And no doubt MGM heard our plea, but tweets while nice to gauge passion, only cost people a small amount of time. What MGM wants to know is will we put our money where our mouth is? If MGM needed to see 2.5 million subscribers on the Stargate Command streaming service, we didn’t make it. If we had all rallied around Stargate Origins, then we believe today there would already be new Stargate being made by Brad Wright.
It’s easy to look back and see where we failed, but a wise person learns from their mistakes. And now is the best time to show MGM that if they launch new Stargate we’ll be there.
MGM’s newest chairman Michael De Luca, has been aggressive in gaining ground for MGM. He has been outbidding other studios during covid. And he’s been successful landing high profile gigs with Ryan Gosling and Lady Gaga among others. While other companies are being conservative, MGM is being aggressive in pursuing material that they think is commercial.
As a fandom, we have the opportunity to show De Luca that Stargate is commercial. it is backed by the fans and this time we will be there with our wallets for new Stargate. Fans don’t usually have to sing for their supper, but if we want Stargate back, we will need to show MGM that we want it. And that we want Brad Wright making it.
And that leads us to project Save The Gate! We’ve created an awareness campaign designed to let MGM and Hollywood know that the fans will be there to support new Stargate if they make it! visit www.savethegate.org where you will be able to sign a petition that will let MGM and their partners know we are unified as a fandom worldwide in supporting a new Brad Wright led Stargate series.
They need 2.5 million people so that’s what we are going to give them. The goal for the campaign is 2.5 million Stargate fan signatures which will represent a strong financial number for any studios willing to partner with MGM on Stargate.
While we are gaining signatures worldwide, we’ll launch an advertising campaign that will target all of the major studios to encourage them to partner with MGM on a new Stargate project.
This may be the last and best opportunity we have to help get a Brad Wright led Stargate series off the ground. We can lay there reminiscing about the past or we can stand up and fight for the future of our franchise.
The stars seem to be aligning with MGM becoming more active and Brad Wright developing a project. Now we just need to bring the fanbase together. What happens next is up to us and we need your help with it.
To participate in project Save the Gate visit www.savethegate.org.
For more information on this, visit us at The Popcast Live youtube channel and www.popcast.co to learn more.
