The Stargate franchise has some seriously passionate fans —hardly a surprise after so many, many years —so when Syfy showed the trailer for the newest installment, Stargate Universe, at San Diego Comic-Con today, the fans screamed their delight. And when they revealed Richard Dean Anderson at the end of the trailer, the place exploded in applause.
Creators of SGU, Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, introduced the cast, including Jamil Walker Smith, Alaina Kalanj (Huffman), David Blue, Robert Carlyle, Elyse Levesque, Brian J. Smith and Ming-Na, who walked in filming us with a hand-held camera. Cooper and Wright told the crowd that they are really excited about the show.
“We worked really really hard to keep the franchise going and make sure people who love Stargate have something to watch,” Cooper said. They promised the crowd that, even though they were going to re-explain the Stargate mythology and that newbies would be able to watch without doing homework, this was also for the fans. They didn’t reveal much about the plot, but Cooper told us that “things are going to happen very quickly,” especially in the first 10 episodes. He warned that if you miss a week, you really could miss something big.
The creators outed the cast as Comic-Con virgins. Smith and Levesque told us about their adventure at the SGU booth. They apparently walked over to take their picture next to the Stargate (and if you’re here, I guarantee you’ve done it, too), where a booth worker came over and offered them a chance to register for a special appearance on SGU.
They opened it up to audience questions very quickly. You can tell a show has devoted fans when most of the questions are for the creators, not the actors. The exception here was Carlyle. He told the crowd that he originally asked the creators why they wanted him. He was told that he could make very unlikable things really likable. “I’m your man for that,” he said.
The women in the cast talked about how each Stargate provided “strong, intelligent and beautiful female role models.” Ming-Na revealed that her character will be a lesbian. She also said that working with Richard Dean Anderson (who will be making periodic appearances) was “a hoot.”
David Blue, who has a bit of a cult following, admitted to being a huge sci-fi fan and said that he’d watched every episode of both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Wright said that with Blue, they were not only getting an actor, but also a technical advisor.
The creators gave us a few more details in response to audience questions. They were asked, “Will we see non-Jaffa, non-English-speaking aliens?” Cooper replied, “We made a blood pact to not have rubber-faced, English-speaking aliens.” They are exploring the universe, however, and they will definitely meet other species. When asked if we’d get any more information about the Furlings, Wright said, “No.” Cooper said, “Maybe.” Stargate Universe idebuts on Friday, Oct. 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
News article courtesy of Sci Fi Wire