Babylon 5 Reboot From The CW

[ZariusTwo]

A hard reboot of 90s saga Babylon 5 is now in the works at the CW with J. Michael Strazynski at the helm.

A new version of the Emmy-winning space opera television series Babylon 5 is in the works. The CW has put in development Babylon 5, described as a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the critically acclaimed 1990s series, from original series creator J. Michael Straczynski and Warner Bros. Television.

Written by Straczynski, the reboot revolves around John Sheridan (played by Bruce Boxleitner in the original series), an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate explorers and alien diplomats at a time of uneasy peace and the constant threat of war. His arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined, as an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us, putting Sheridan and the rest of the B5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race.


Created by Straczynski, the original Babylon 5 debuted in 1993 with the pilot film The Gathering. A future-history story covering the years 2257-2262, with each year corresponding to one season, Babylon 5 was the first series to introduce viewers to the concept of a five-year arc, with a defined beginning, middle and end. The series launched in 1994 and ran for five seasons and 110 additional episodes. Cast included Bruce Boxleitner, Michael O’Hare, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andrea Thompson, Bill Mumy, Jason Carter, Tracy Scoggins, Stephen Furst, Patricia Tallman, Peter Jurasik, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway and Robert Rusler.

Straczynski won over a dozen awards for his work on the series, including two Hugo Awards, the Saturn Award, the Space Frontier Foundation Award, and the Ray Bradbury Award. Following the original series, Straczynski continued to tell stories in the Babylon 5 universe, with the TNT series Crusade, seven subsequent feature-length films, and a series of novels, novelizations, short stories, and comics from DC.

Straczynski most recently created, wrote and show-ran (with the Wachowskis) the Netflix series Sense8 and was nominated for a Producers Guild Award for his work on the series finale film. He also created the Showtime series Jeremiah. His script for the Clint Eastwood–directed feature film Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Original ScreenplayHis other film credits include Underworld: Awakening, World War Z, Thor and Ninja Assassin.


In addition to his film and television work, Straczynski is an acclaimed comics writer for DC and Marvel, receiving the Eisner, Icon and Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Awards for his books, which have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. His new novel, Together We Will Go, has just been published by Simon and Schuster, and he is head of the creative council for a new comics publishing company, Artists, Writers and Artisans (AWA). Straczynski is repped by A3 Artists Agency and Gendler-Kelly.

https://deadline.com/2021/09/babylon...cw-1234845022/

[The Deadman]

It'll be a love story because the CW loves love stories.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

It'll be a love story because the CW loves love stories.

You know JMS probably only had to say "Ivanova and Talia" to get them interested

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

It'll be a love story because the CW loves love stories.

Actually CW owns the IP, Because the CW is a merger between UPN and The WB, I remember watching the original series when it aired on The WB in the 90s.

[Andrew NDB]

I've never seen Babylon 5. It's like the one big sci-fi space franchise I haven't really touched yet.

I dunno. It always looked to me like a cheaper, more boring looking Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But without the Star Trek and without any hook for me.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I dunno. It always looked to me like a cheaper, more boring looking Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

That's because DS9 pretty much ripped B5 off wholesale. There's plenty of stories about that online.

[sdp]

I've never seen it either but have always been curious because of how people treat it like it's the best thing ever made. But people act like that with cult shows all the time and sometimes they're right like with Firefly and sometimes not so much like with Terminator: TSCC

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

That's because DS9 pretty much ripped B5 off wholesale. There's plenty of stories about that online.

Maybe. It's possible. I'm not really interested in "chicken or the egg" with it, though... it just looked bland to me.

[TigerClaw]

This new Babylon 5 will have better CGI, But CGI that's to CW standards, The CGI from the original series no longer hold up and looks dated, That show was made in the 90s, So all the FX were done on a Video Toaster.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

That show was made in the 90s, So all the FX were done on a Video Toaster.

oh snap! is that some sass from TigerClaw?

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by sdp

oh snap! is that some sass from TigerClaw?

I wouldn't call it sass since the Video Toaster was a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Toaster
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...video-toaster/

It was the hardware that was used to create all the visuals for Babylon 5.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by sdp

I've never seen it either but have always been curious because of how people treat it like it's the best thing ever made. But people act like that with cult shows all the time and sometimes they're right like with Firefly and sometimes not so much like with Terminator: TSCC

As a fan of B5, I will admit the first season is an absolute slog, with a lead actor who could not give it his best shot because he was combatting mental illness, that and a lot of the actors just feel like co-workers you happen to see in the workplace attending amateur dramatics in their lunch break.

Season two is a marked improvement, but it's Seasons three and four that are the golden years of the show. Season five didn't need to exist, the majority of the story had already been told by that point. The best parts about season five is they set things up for future developments that could have made an even better sixth season if JMS wasn't so stubborn about the 'five year plan'.

JMS is a great writer, but when he's bad, he's awful. He also repeatedly butts heads with studio executives, so it probably isn't going to take long for CW to piss him off at some point.

[ZariusTwo]

The sale of the CW meant a certain select few pilots could be commissioned for the year during the state of transition. Babylon 5 was not one of them. However, CW boss Mark Pedowitz, was so impressed with JMS' script that he's decided to roll back the script and development of the reboot into 2023.

https://cultbox.co.uk/news/babylon-5...sale-of-the-cw

[ZariusTwo]

The reboot won't be happening for a while because of the WGA strike, but the good news is Warner have been developing an animated feature with the original series cast in secret for a year and will be releasing more information next week

https://twitter.com/straczynski/stat...99810137481216

[ZariusTwo]

Returning Babylon 5 castmembers include Bruce Boxleitner as John Sheridan, Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova, Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari, Bill Mumy as Lennier, Tracy Scoggins as Elizabeth Lochley and Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander.

Straczynski wrote the film and executive produces. Matt Peters, known for Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons, directs, with Rick Morales serving as supervising producer. Sam Register is the executive producer on the project.

The voice cast also includes Paul Guyet as Zathras and Jeffery Sinclair, Anthony Hansen as Michael Garibaldi, Mara Junot as Reporter and Computer Voice, Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, Piotr Michael as David Sheridan, Andrew Morgado as G’Kar and Rebecca Riedy as Delenn.

Babylon 5 began life as a film that aired on TV in 1993, and the ratings were strong enough that Warners ordered a series that ran five seasons and 110 episodes. Straczynski has continued expanding the story of Babylon 5, a 5-mile-long space station seen as neutral ground for various alien species to interact amid the backdrop of a threat of war. It spawned multiple feature-length TV films, comics and novels, as well as the spinoff series Crusade.

Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment are plotting a summer release for the new animated feature.

Straczynski has plugged the new film with words such as “raucous,” “heartfelt” and “nonstop,” and called it a “love letter to the fans.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...ed-1235483312/

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari

I had the biggest "Mandela syndrome" moment here, because, I thought he had died 20 years ago.

[ZariusTwo]

First look at the animated movie

https://twitter.com/straczynski/stat...802717697?s=61

[ZariusTwo]

[ZariusTwo]

Blu-Ray release for the entire original series

https://gizmodo.com/babylon-5-blu-ra...ate-1850651890