Former Stargate SG1 actor and occasional cameo on Stargate Atlantis, Michael Shanks has revealed that he is in talks with Brad Wright to make a guest appearance in the new Stargate Universe premiere.
Featured below is an excerpt from the interview:
“I talked to [executive producer] Brad Wright a couple of weeks ago, and he asked me if I’d be interested in doing a cameo in the Universe pilot, and I of course said I would be,” Shanks said in an exclusive interview. “And there’s a great deal of talk about [it]. … They’ve got a script going and everything like that.”
Shanks added that he hasn’t put Dr. Jackson away completely yet. “There will be a Stargate SG-1 movie [for DVD], probably filmed around the same time the [Stargate] Atlantis movie is filmed this coming summer,” he added. “So that’s all going to be going on.”
Shanks played Jackson on and off for a decade in Stargate SG-1, as well as on the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis and in the made-for-DVD movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum.
The next SG-1 movie, “as far as I know, is pretty Rick-heavy [as in Richard Dean Anderson], pretty O’Neill [Anderson]-heavy,” Shanks said. “So I don’t know much more than that, but I will most definitely be involved in it.”
Since SG-1 ended in 2007, Shanks has been busy with guest appearances on TV shows, including USA Network’s Burn Notice and the upcoming telemovies Living Out Loud and Desperate Escape (with Angel’s Elisabeth Rohm).
Shanks explained that it’s the ideal situation to be able to stay in the Stargate game without being tied to it as an everyday job. “It’s great,” he said. “After 10 years and getting not picked up or canceled or whatever you want to call it, it feels almost a little bit odd, because you’re so used to the process. But going away from it, it’s great to be able to explore other opportunities. When you’re doing a show for nine months a year, you always want to shake it up and do other things, but you don’t have the time. Now, it’s the best of both worlds. We can get on with it and have other experiences and still revisit the franchise and the great family environment that we have with the cast and crew. ‘The further adventures of …’ is a nice treat.”