Babylon 5 Reboot Gets an Encouraging Update

The Babylon 5 reboot just got something of an encouraging update thanks to a recent social media post from creator J. Michael Straczynski. On X/Twitter, Straczynski responded to a now-deleted post about the Babylon 5 reboot project and in his response, he countered the assertion that the project was “dead” and revealed that he had recently had a conversation about the project, suggesting that the Babylon 5 reboot is still alive.

“You did say that the project was ‘dead’ and it is not, per a conversation I had today to confirm this,” Straczynski wrote. “You didn’t say they’re still trying, per ‘many projects.’ You made a statement that is *provably untrue* so I again strongly suggest you delete and retract.”

The planned Babylon 5 reboot has had a long road. Back in 2021, a reboot of the sci-fi series, described at the time as being a “from-the-ground-up reboot”, was announced as being in development at The CW. However, with Nexstar acquiring The CW in 2022, there were a lot of changes at the network and various projects that had been in development under former network head Mark Pedowitz were given back to their respective studios.

“We’ve already given those back to the studios,” The CW President of Entertainment Brad Schwartz said of various projects at the time.

The planned Babylon 5 reboot later got a more positive update last July, when it was reported that movement on the project had stalled due to the Writers Guild of America strike and that things weren’t over for the series just yet. On X/Twitter this week, Straczynski also clarified that there are other reasons there have been delays on more official news — including streamers reconsidering their business models.

“Since Warners believes in the project, they negotiated the script back from CW to sell elsewhere,” he wrote. They had to bring it to broadcast networks first but we all knew that wouldn’t be their thing and were about to take it to streamers when the Paramount+ mercer put this on hold until that’s worked out. Also, the streamers are all reconsidering their business models, budgets, genres, and other stuff, so all submissions are kinda dead right now. Word around town is these issues should be figured out in 6-8 weeks, then they’ll hear pitches/pilots.”

What is the Original Babylon 5 About?

The original Babylon 5 followed those stationed on the space station Babylon 5, including human military staff and alien diplomats, in the aftermath of various major inter-species wars with the space station intended as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. The series was first developed as a television movie for the now-defunct Prime Time Entertainment Network with the film, Babylon 5: The Gathering, debuting in 1993. This led to a series which ran for five seasons, ending in 1998. The original series starred Michael O’Hare, Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, and Mira Furlan. The original series has since spawned various spinoffs and television movies as well as tie-in novels and comics.

What do you think about the latest update on the Babylon 5 reboot? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!