Stargate‘s creators had some fascinating plans for sequels that never happened. Film producer Dean Devlin is best known for his partnership with director Roland Emmerich on such films as and the 1998 Godzilla movie. However, their first collaboration was on Stargate, the 1994 sci-fi film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader that focused on the titular portal, the “Stargate,’ and the influence of alien beings on ancient human civilization. The film met mixed reviews but was profitable, earning $200 million on a relatively low budget. However, Devlin and Emmerich’s plans for a trilogy were scrapped by MGM, who had bought the rights to the film from the original financiers, in favor of turning the property into a television franchise. Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment, Devlin shared his and Emmerich’s plans for Stargate‘s sequels.
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“Roland and I had fallen in love with the idea of taking things that are part of our own mythological subconscious,” Devlin said. “The first movie asks, ‘Did aliens build the pyramids?’ The second one was going to deal with, ‘Why are there pyramids in Mayan culture?’”
Bill McCay wrote five Stargate novels set after the film with no connection to the television canon. Instead, they were based on Emmerich’s notes for Stargate‘s original multi-film story. However, filtered through McCay’s interpretation of what might have been, the novels bear little resemblance to what Devlin described to Yahoo.
“The third one was going to tie everything together,” Devlin said. “We were gonna have the Yeti, we were gonna have the Loch Ness Monster. It was all going to make sense how these things are tied together.”
Stargate’s Future
In 2016, news broke that Devlin and Emmerich were working together on a trilogy of movies rebooting the Stargate franchise. Speaking to ComicBook.com in 2020, Emmerich offered an update, saying the path forward on those films was no longer clear.
“Yeah, I kind of talked a little bit with MGM about Stargate,” Emmerich said. “But I think this is going nowhere because there was another TV show, and they kind of realized that if it’s like some sort of a mixed bag.”
Amazon purchased MGM in 2022, gaining ownership of its various film properties. Soon after the deal closed, reports surfaced that MGM is considering turning many of them, including Stargate, into new films and movies for its Prime Video streaming service.
The original Stargate movie is currently streaming for free (with ads) on Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel.
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