Comic(s) Relief: Unfilmed Stargate Movie Script May Become Comic

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By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Stargate AtlantisWhether you were a fan or not, you have to admire Stargate’s staying power. The original 1994 film was good fun, but I don’t think anybody could have guessed that it would eventually spawn three separate spin-off series, not to mention several TV movies. That’s bordering on Star Trek levels or proliferation. Alas, just as it was for Trek in the aftermath of Enterprise’s cancellation, Stargate’s future was uncertain. And again just like Trek, Stargate is headed for a reboot, a planned trilogy of new films. I’m sure many Stargate won’t be pleased to see their beloved franchise rolled back to square one, but here’s some good news: some original-recipe Stargate may be headed your way in comics form.

“May be” are the operative words there, however. Gateworld reports that a listing for a four-issue comic series called Stargate: Extinction popped up on a release schedule for BOOM! Studios…but was soon taken back down. That could mean a lot of things, but it seems likely, given the details that were included, that somebody jumped the gun and shared the info before it was cleared for release.

If you’re a die-hard Stargate fan, the name Extinction probably rang some bells. That was the name of a proposed Stargate: Atlantis TV movie that was in the works for a while, but which eventually fell apart. It would have adapted a storyline originally intended to open Atlantis’ sixth season, had it gotten one. Unfortunately the show was cancelled after five, which lead to Atlantis executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie tweaking the script into the proposed standalone movie for Syfy. That project had been deader than a doornail for several years now, but it looks like it might be finding resurrection on the comic page.

Here’s the BOOM! Studios blurb Gateworld snagged from the Extinction listing before it itself went extinct:

’We’re big fans of this enduring sci-fi franchise, and after bringing our skills and passion to other great properties like FARSCAPE and PLANET OF THE APES, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on another long-running favorite: STARGATE. STARGATE: EXTINCTION has been known to die-hard fans as producer-writers’ Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie’s unmade sequel to STARGATE: ATLANTIS. Now, BOOM! Studios is proud to help bring this story to four-color life.

There was also a short synopsis of Extinction’s storyline:

Atlantis is the new home of Stargate command. The ancient city’s Stargate finally opens. It will lead to the team’s most epic adventure yet … and may destroy Atlantis itself.

Resurrecting long-lost science fiction shows as comics has been all the rage in recent years, with comic versions of everything from Firefly/Serenity to The X-Files picking up where the shows and movies left off. In fact, BOOM! already did that very thing with their Farscape comics (read more about them here), so it makes sense that they’d be tapped to help resurrect Stargate for comics. For now, however, we’ll have to keep this in the “maybe” column, but hopefully there will be some official confirmation soon.

Hit the next page for a rundown of this week’s science fiction comics!


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