Amazon's Scrapped Stargate Show Featured Daniel Jackson Trapped in a Parallel Universe
Amazon's canned Stargate reboot would have starred Michael Shanks' fan-favorite character Daniel Jackson, trapped in a parallel universe.
Jackson confirmed he had been involved in the project this weekend at the Starfury: Ascension 2 convention in Birmingham, UK this weekend (thanks, Gateworld) prompting more details on the project to be spilled via prolific Stargate fan podcast Dial the Gate.
Those details included the series' proposed setting: an alternate universe where numerous plot elements from past Stargate series would not have occurred. The idea here, it seems, would have been to offer a soft reboot of the franchise's continuity in order to cater for a new audience.
At the same time, the franchise's original Daniel Jackson would have been a regular character — giving returning fans a familiar face to tune in for, who still carried the knowledge of the original Stargate universe.
Later seasons had the potential to shift the series' narrative back to that Prime universe, it's reported, while the parallel universe setting would have allowed other Stargate veterans to make cameos, presumably as alt-universe versions of themselves.
Shanks' involvement in the project does not come as a surprise, following his past comments despairing at the series' abrupt cancellation by Amazon despite years of work and a triumphant public reveal. An initial report claimed that the show was scrapped due to fears it would not have appealled to anyone beyond the franchise's core audience — something that veteran Stargate writer Joseph Mallozzi, who had been working on the project, subsequently disputed.
Amazon is reportedly still interested in a future for the Stargate franchise, even if this specific revival series stays cancelled. But in a previous message to fans, Shanks suggested that this particular project represented fans' only hope of a revival built by former members of the Stargate SG-1 production team, and featuring members of its former cast.
Months later, and despite calls for fans to make their voices heard, there's no suggestion the series' cancellation will be reversed.
Image credit: MGM.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social