It’s been well over a year since it was first announced that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin will reteam with MGM and Warner Bros. for a reimagining of the highly popular Stargate franchise, but the first film in the proposed trilogy finally has someone tapped for screenwriting duties. Two people actually, as James A. Woods and Nicholas Wright have been brought in to script the initial entry to this rebooted series.

Woods and Wright are somewhat surprising choices for this high-profile project, as they’re far more known for their acting credentials than their screenwriting ones. On the other hand, it makes almost perfect sense, as Emmerich and Devlin brought the duo in last year to do a rewrite on the long-gestating Independence Day 2. Emmerich first gained knowledge of the pair’s talents when his company, Centropolis Entertainment, acquired an untitled action thriller they wrote. Are these the guys that will usher in a blazing new era of 1990s science fiction?

There’s been talk of Independence Day 2 damn near since the first one was released in 1996 and became a massive hit. After tons of false starts, rumored script battles, and casting troubles, it appears that things are finally moving forward. There’s even a June 24, 2016 release date scheduled that will get the movie into theaters just in time for the Fourth of July weekend they ruled 20 years before. Producer Dean Devlin has been discussing the project, and recently shared some information about why they’re only shooting one movie this time out, what the star and script situations looks like, and even touched on the Stargate reboot with director Roland Emmerich.

The original plan was to film Independence Day 2 and Independence Day 3 back-to-back. That was the idea for years, even before it was the thing that everyone did, but as it turns out, they’re going to take the future of the franchise one movie at a time. This move makes sense, as popular as the first film was, it’s been a long time, and Devlin, Emmerich, and company want to make sure there’s still public interest before diving in. Devlin said:

Star Trek and Star Wars are the undisputed titans of sci-fi TV and film, two franchises that have found insane success across multiple media, far beyond their original roots. But there’s a third Star-related franchise out there, and while it might not be as massively successful as the creations of Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas, it still managed to expand far beyond what anyone could have expected when a little flick called Stargate hit theaters in October 1994. Now, after having lain fallow for a few years, original movie co-creator Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are set to resurrect Stargate as a new trilogy of films…but Devlin says it will actually be a return to their original vision for the world of that first film.

Stargate was a decent success at the box office back in the day, bringing in nearly $200 million worldwide. You’d think that would suggest a sequel as the natural way to forward, and indeed, that’s what Devlin and Emmerich had planned. That sequel never materialized, but instead we got Stargate SG-1, which premiered in 1997 and ran for five seasons on Showtime before shifting over to the Sci-Fi Channel for five more. Along the way it spawned two more TV spin-offs, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, not to mention assorted books, comics, games, and the like. When Universe folded after only two seasons in 2011, the Stargate franchise went into limbo. Dean Devlin is dragging it out, and back onto the big screen, to finish what he started with the original film.

MGM and Warner Bros. have worked out a deal that will allow them to relaunch one of 1990s most popular science fiction franchises, and they’re bringing a big name director, known for his penchant for destruction, along for the ride. It is being reported that Roland Emmerich is attached to helm a new Stargate movie, the first in what is proposed to be a new trilogy.

THR reports that Emmerich, who directed the 1994 original, will reteam with producing partner Dean Devlin, who also produced that film. The blockbuster director hasn’t had a big hit in a while, and this isn’t the only of his successful films that he’s planning to revisit. The long gestating Independence Day 2, parts one and two, also just inked a deal with a new writer, Carter Blanchard.

Disappointed Stargate fans have been longing for a TV resurrection of their beloved franchise ever since the demise of Stargate Universe in 2011, after only two seasons. Sadly, the most recent scuttlebutt suggests that Stargate is planning a big-screen comeback instead, with a rebooted film trilogy in the works that sounds like it’ll be tossing out all those spin-off series in favor of a fresh start. Well, consider this a consolation prize, Gaters: Ridley Scott is helping develop a potential HBO series that will repurpose Stargate’s chocolate-and-peanut-butter mixture of ancient history and meddling extraterrestrials, just without the actual stargates. Apparently somebody had already called dibs on the title Stargate-less, because they’re calling it Pharaoh instead.

Whether 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.