Michael Shanks on Amazon's New Stargate Plans: "We Don't Even Know if Jac Schaeffer's Version Is Going to Go"
Michael Shanks says he was surprised when word came that Amazon MGM Studios had brought in WandaVision's Jac Schaeffer to develop a new Stargate series, and he is not convinced the project will go ahead. Speaking with Bleeding Cool alongside his A Full Circle podcast co-host David Read, in a two-part interview published on October 30 and November 3, Shanks said: "My first impression was surprise, because from what I had heard as well, there was no sort of grand plan, at least initially after the cancellation of Martin's show." He added that he knows Schaeffer's work only by reputation, having not seen her shows.
Shanks also said the studio has given no sign that fan pressure played a part. "There's been nothing from them to indicate that they heard the fans or are listening or anything, and that this is even based on that, because we don't even know if Jac Schaeffer's version is going to go," he said, pointing to the many attempts to bring Stargate back over the past 15 years. Read added: "There's been no official response."
Asked whether budget contributed to the cancellation of Martin Gero's series, the reply, which follows Shanks' earlier answer in the transcript without a new speaker label, was that "there was never any indication that budget was a factor in decision-making," described as "a third-person understanding of the situation." The speaker cautioned that "money is always a factor" and suggested the decision may have come down to how the studio judged the risk of its investment, or to what new leadership wanted creatively, adding: "So, it's hard to say."
In part two, Shanks said creatives "have to be careful" about listening to the volume of online fan reaction, which can reflect a vocal minority, but warned that ignoring it too much can alienate a large part of the audience because "they feel they're not being heard." On a lighter note, he named season eight's "Prometheus Unbound," with Claudia Black, as his favorite SG-1 bottle episode.