We did a poll for our subscribers and we asked a simple question… Do you want a new Stargate movie or new Stargate series?
The answer?
90% of the thousands of replies shouted loud and clear. We want a series!
However all the rumours for a year have pointed towards plans for a theatrical released movie. Now on one hand I liked the thought that Amazon MGM were willing to put their money where their mouth was and put Stargate back in Cinemas but honestly I always feared what might happen if the movie then bombed? And let us be very honest, it is almost impossible to anticipate how any movie will do at the box office recently.
In April even Deadline reported that we would “probably” be getting a Stargate movie and we have been reporting it since late 2022.
But have things changed?
Well there are a couple of things that make us start to think plans at Amazon MGM are changing and a series, NOT A MOVIE, is becoming closer to a reality.
Firstly the strikes. Well it is a fact that Amazon intended to announce a Stargate movie plan at San Diego Comic Con earlier in the year. It was only the ongoing strikes that stopped them from pulling the trigger. More than that though the Strikes has given all of the studios, not just Amazon, the opportunity to review everything it had planned for the next 5 years. Every project, every script, every idea, it ALL got reviewed. We have seen several big projects get either scrapped or reset. He-Man live action movie had had 30 million dollars spent on development but Netflix pulled the plug and even though Marvel had already started filming Daredevil they decided to scrap it and start again.
So it seems giving executives time to think is a bad idea.
I have already mentioned that the cinema landscape has changed and big franchise movies are just not performing. Marvel is faltering, DC is stagnant, Indiana tripped at the first hurdle and Mission Impossible found getting ticket sales to be… well… difficult. This may be the second reason why Amazon is reconsidering its big return to cinemas with Stargate.
This delay thanks to the strikes may have also simply given executives time to look at what the fans actually want too. I know this seems hard to believe but sometimes TV and movie executives actually want to make TV and Movies we want to watch. Amazon spends millions of dollars gathering and analyzing meta-data. Billions of bits of data about viewing figures, opinions, social media interest and clicks on YouTube videos. All this data gets scrutinized over and over again.
Now we have reported at SciTrek that there has been an ongoing debate within the management team at MGM and Amazon about what to do with the Stargate franchise. It seems that the top people at Amazon wanted a movie and at the end of the day, they are in charge now. However many, especially at MGM, wanted a series. Two weeks ago they got their chance to explain why.
Mid October 2023 there was a meeting at Culver Studios. Top executives including Jennifer Salke (head of Amazon and MGM Pictures) asked along colleagues that had been arguing for a series rather than a movie (this included head of MGM+ Michael Wright) to argue their points. I imagine lots of pie charts and power point presentations in overdrive.
Just a few days after that there was another meeting with the top people at Amazon to discuss when several projects should be announced and according to sources, Stargate was also on the agenda. Now we don’t know exactly what the discussion was about or what was decided but we cannot help but wonder if it was to discuss changing the plan and scrapping the movie idea all together?
Of course that is speculation but another leak a few weeks ago is suddenly seen in a different light if you consider that possibility. SciTrek once again reported first and exclusively that PR and marketing for Amazon MGM Pictures were asked to review all the plans for projects over the next 18 months. Stargate was NOT included. Now at the time we wondered if this was because they were about to announce it. We argued that the Stargate Timekeepers game is coming out and maybe Amazon would announce before its release date on December 12th 2023. After all the game would sell a lot better if Stargate was in the news right? News of a new big project would definitely do that and get sales for the game up!
Maybe however there is another possibility. Perhaps all their plans were for a Movie announcement and just maybe those plans were not reviewed because they were no longer relevant?
Further insiders have confirmed these meeting did go ahead and that Amazon have already scrapped or changed their plans on several other projects. We have also been able to confirm through a very good source close to MGM that Penguin in a Parker is once again negotiating with Amazon MGM to develop and run the show. The guys that brought us The Expanse Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are once again in the driving seat and ready to sign the contract to get one with development. Developing what though? That is the question.
We have been convinced for a long time now that we were going to be getting a Movie. We were resigned to that fact and just hoped that the movie would once again spawn years of amazing television. We never agreed with the plan but we were keen to stay positive and hope for the best. However is Amazon do change their minds and go with the series instead then we will celebrate their choice. You never know, maybe we will get a movie down the line but after 2 or 3 seasons of Stargate goodness!
Now get yourselves into gear and OPEN the Gate already!!