Stargate Pilot Director Mario Azzopardi Joins #SaveStargate as Fans Mount "Operation Flyover"
Another founding voice of the franchise has stepped into the fight to bring Stargate back. Mario Azzopardi — the director who helmed Stargate SG-1's two-hour 1997 pilot "Children of the Gods" and went on to direct episodes of both SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis — has added his name to the #SaveStargate campaign. A statement from Azzopardi, shared with his permission by the YouTube channel Dial the Gate on June 15, 2026, is now featured among the "Voices for Stargate" on the campaign's hub at savestargate.com.
Azzopardi joins a growing roster of franchise figures backing the effort to reverse Amazon MGM Studios' decision to halt Martin Gero's planned Stargate series. Actor Michael Shanks and longtime producer Joe Mallozzi have spent recent weeks urging fans to sign petitions and contact the studio respectfully, and the campaign has gone out of its way to present itself as an organized, positive fanbase rather than an angry mob.
His endorsement landed on the eve of the campaign's biggest push yet. For Tuesday, June 16, fans organized "Operation Flyover" — a fan-funded banner plane scheduled to tow a #SaveStargate banner over Amazon MGM Studios' Culver City headquarters between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Pacific, timed to a coordinated "tweet storm" beginning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific. The main Change.org petition has climbed toward 85,000 signatures as the campaign has built momentum.
Amazon canceled the series in early June despite a completed 20-week writers' room and pre-production already underway, a decision widely tied to an executive shakeup at the studio. Amazon MGM Studios has not publicly addressed the petitions or the fan campaign.