The EP and creator, J Michael, explains why it's a reboot, which is not totally convincing at least to me. If the original series was flawed and should be corrected, then yes; but, if it was pretty good and still look somewhat good, then no. I have always said that, if I ever got a franchise, there would be no reboots, but this is making me rethink that position. No matter - I enjoy writing.
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movies Babylon 5 reboot in the works.
- Thread starter Aspiring Mogul
- Start date
The interesting thing about this guy is that he's really been part of the zeitgeist for as long as anyone can remember. While his writing has been hit and miss over the years, I do respect him as a prolific author, who had a lot of success with children's animated content specifically. Chances are if you grew up in the 80's you heard a lot of Strazinski's storytelling without even realizing it. In example, he wrote a number of the classic ghostbusters cartoons, which were at the apex of 80s animation popularity. A key background player in American television.
www.imdb.com
J. Michael Straczynski | Writer, Producer, Additional Crew
Known for: Babylon 5, Changeling, Jeremiah
www.imdb.com
I attended a convention around that time, and he said he did some writing for He-Man.
The project has been delayed till 2023, which is not surprising, because most projects run into delays and roadblocks. The question, however, is if the "delay" is actually an abandonment, and time will tell. I think that, if preproduction doesn't start within a year, the reboot is done for the time being.
I have to question whether or not this will actually happen. Sci fi is my favorite genre, and I've seen this entire series and the movies 3 times. I have to say that despite some good writing here and there, the series was basically terrible. I can't really imagine studios financing a reboot of this the same year that they cancelled a Game of Thrones Spinoff, which was in insanely high demand. I do like Mr Strazakowski's work, but I think that this property is long dead in terms of broad public interest. I do remember a distant time when I used to enjoy the show, but having watched Deep Space 9 again this year, I have to say that DS9 is more than 3x as good a show, attached to the the most successful sci fi franchise in TV history, and no reboot of that is planned. To make things worse, we're talking about the CW here, a network where the highest rated shows in it's history were things like Supernatural, a show that made Dawson's creek look like a masterpiece.
From a nostalgia perspective, I kind of want it to happen, but the realist in me says that it's not likely to work out. In counterpoint, I would have said the same thing about Battlestar Galactica, which was indeed rebooted successfully. I guess time will tell, and I wish Mr Strazakowski the best of luck.
From a nostalgia perspective, I kind of want it to happen, but the realist in me says that it's not likely to work out. In counterpoint, I would have said the same thing about Battlestar Galactica, which was indeed rebooted successfully. I guess time will tell, and I wish Mr Strazakowski the best of luck.
Is it in insanely high demand though?
The last 2 seasons of GoT were so incredibly awful, the ending was perhaps the most disappointing finale in television history.
I have to imagine that the bad writing destroyed their own legacy and ruined most of the goodwill and demand fans had.
You think people would have been lining up for a season 9? lol.
Well, it's a bit of a difficult question, because season 7 and 8 probably wouldn't have been as bad if they had made a season 9 and 10. It felt rushed. I didn't hate it as much as some people, it just felt like they were trying to tie off the worlds biggest plotline in the same time frame they had to create an ending for "Castle"
It was the single most successful show in history by a lot of metrics, and they announced 3 separate spinoff series, so I feel like demand was high, despite some fans not liking the end.
I also think GOT suffered a bit from the Mass Effect 3 problem, where people are so finicky now that if one thing happens that they don't like, they will trash 90 hours of content over it. In ME3, the devs apparently ran out of money or ideas at the end of one of the highest rated trilogies in gaming history, so they tacked on a cheap ending. The internet went absolutely insane, and to this day many people claim that the entire trilogy was ruined by a 5 minute cutscene at the end of the third game. Never mind that the second installment universally scored 10/10 across virtually every publication worldwide at release.
I also have to blame GRR Martin a bit for this. He's an amazing writer, but this whole thing could have gone a lot better if he could be bothered to write a book every 7 years or faster. I don't get why people with enourmous incintives just don't work as hard as people with almost nothing. They would have given him 40 million in cash to finish one more book, but he didn't. Asimov and Heinlin wrote 8 books a year because they could get a 25k advance on each one. I think Asimov ended up with over 500 books to his name, many of them classics, and among them, the highest rated science fiction novel of all time.
It was the single most successful show in history by a lot of metrics, and they announced 3 separate spinoff series, so I feel like demand was high, despite some fans not liking the end.
I also think GOT suffered a bit from the Mass Effect 3 problem, where people are so finicky now that if one thing happens that they don't like, they will trash 90 hours of content over it. In ME3, the devs apparently ran out of money or ideas at the end of one of the highest rated trilogies in gaming history, so they tacked on a cheap ending. The internet went absolutely insane, and to this day many people claim that the entire trilogy was ruined by a 5 minute cutscene at the end of the third game. Never mind that the second installment universally scored 10/10 across virtually every publication worldwide at release.
I also have to blame GRR Martin a bit for this. He's an amazing writer, but this whole thing could have gone a lot better if he could be bothered to write a book every 7 years or faster. I don't get why people with enourmous incintives just don't work as hard as people with almost nothing. They would have given him 40 million in cash to finish one more book, but he didn't. Asimov and Heinlin wrote 8 books a year because they could get a 25k advance on each one. I think Asimov ended up with over 500 books to his name, many of them classics, and among them, the highest rated science fiction novel of all time.
THAT is exactly the reason: they no longer NEED the money. And there are only so many houses, planes, and boats a person can buy.
Life is short. At a certain point, many people would rather enjoy what they have rather than work hard to get more.
That is such a weird interpretation of my question. I was talking about how bad 7 and 8 were that nobody would want to watch and 9 and you came back at me talking about changin 7 and 8 to make them less rushed? lol. There is no changing the past man. That shit happened and it was terrible and the respect everyone hard for the franchise went downhill.
It's not people being finicky either
Season 6 - good writing
hodor holds the door - bran stark getitng pulled away on a sled with undead army chasing him.
The undead never get tired so so they catch him and it all makes sense. Only benjen on a horse saves bran and only with a horse can you escape.
Season 7 - shit writing.
Jon goes beyond the wall - walks for days to capture one undead from the army.
WITH NO GOD DAMN HORSES> WTF??? What is the plan?? HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU EVEN GO BACK HOME
Even if his plan was 100% successful and he gets a wight? he still dies because he cannot run with a wight on his back all the way back to castle black with an undead army chasing him the entire time. Why are there no horses why is this show so bad now all of the sudden?
Like its so simple to just put them on horses and it's the only thing that makes sense, why on earth would you go north of the wall without horses?
Very very simple things like this it was just obvious the show was written by people that were either incredibly dumb or just not interested in doing a good job.
I really have to struggle not to make biting satirical comments about politics. I had to erase many paragraphs of hilarious commentary on this particular path of logic. Suffice it to say that I agree with you.
Well, I think 2 things happened here. One, they changed writers. RR wrote the earlier seasons, and they were amazing, around season 6 they ran out of source material. Secondly, I think the show runners were kind of checked out by the end, judging from various interviews they gave. Yet another instance of people having astronomical incentives and just getting bored and walking off.
It's almost like giving .001 percent of the people 99% of the incentives isn't a rational idea.
I do agree that the last 2 seasons were the weakest, but to give credit where it's due, there were episodes in the final seasons that rivaled the amount of production effort seen in studio feature films. The writing may have gone downhill, but a lot of the other people involved were still delivering amazing work.
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I'd have calle them zombies instead but then the pedants come out in full forceDat's wight, wabbit!
On May 19, 2022, they said it was still happening but gave no details. It's now almost two months later, and there're still no details. I'm going to call it - it won't happen any time soon.
I think the biggest issue with a B5 remake is related to where the original show's strengths were. By todays standards, and even that days standards, most of Babylon 5 was subpar, the sets, FX, casting, etc, were mostly B level. The reason I once loved Babylon 5 and so many others did, was really about one thing. The longer form storytelling that remained on a coherent trajectory for 4 years. It was a series that felt more like a good book than most of the others, and kind of pioneered telling longer and more sophisticated sci fi stories on television. It really was groundbreaking in it's way.
Here's the problem, original episodes were at about 700k per episode budget. To bring it back today, and make it competitive in a space 20x as crowded as the one the original faced. (I think when B5 originally aired, there were about 3 sci fi shows in existence, now that number is probably around 60) the budget would need to be maybe 5 million minimum per episode. That's a half price sci fi show, competing against many double budget shows in the same space. Since, like GOT, Babylon 5 relies on the quality of it's long form story developments, you're talking about running it for 2-3 years before it can really shine. In fact, with GOT, the showrunners knew they would be cancelled if they only got one season, so they demanded a minimum of two up front. So let's say B5 needs 2 seasons at 12 episodes to really get back on it's feet. That's 120 million dollars, at minimum budget for a second tier sci fi show. That's a big bet on a horse that hasn't run a race in 30 years. I'd say financial backers are skeptical, but that's just a guess.
Zoom out a bit, and look at it in context, they rebooted Star Wars, the most popular sci fi franchise in history, then spent 20 million an episode, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor. All series in total amount to 49 episodes across six seasons of television. They seem to be having difficulty getting people to watch THAT.
So rising costs, Market saturation and fragmentation, an aging IP that didn't hold it's ground as well as some others. Sadly, this proposed reboot has a lot of things going against it, from a business/financial perspective.
I'm not saying it could never happen. Like all TV shows, they are one brilliantly charismatic and imaginative writer/lead actor combo away from success. J Micheal's writing was legendary, so I do hope he finds a way back into the system.
Here's the problem, original episodes were at about 700k per episode budget. To bring it back today, and make it competitive in a space 20x as crowded as the one the original faced. (I think when B5 originally aired, there were about 3 sci fi shows in existence, now that number is probably around 60) the budget would need to be maybe 5 million minimum per episode. That's a half price sci fi show, competing against many double budget shows in the same space. Since, like GOT, Babylon 5 relies on the quality of it's long form story developments, you're talking about running it for 2-3 years before it can really shine. In fact, with GOT, the showrunners knew they would be cancelled if they only got one season, so they demanded a minimum of two up front. So let's say B5 needs 2 seasons at 12 episodes to really get back on it's feet. That's 120 million dollars, at minimum budget for a second tier sci fi show. That's a big bet on a horse that hasn't run a race in 30 years. I'd say financial backers are skeptical, but that's just a guess.
Zoom out a bit, and look at it in context, they rebooted Star Wars, the most popular sci fi franchise in history, then spent 20 million an episode, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor. All series in total amount to 49 episodes across six seasons of television. They seem to be having difficulty getting people to watch THAT.
So rising costs, Market saturation and fragmentation, an aging IP that didn't hold it's ground as well as some others. Sadly, this proposed reboot has a lot of things going against it, from a business/financial perspective.
I'm not saying it could never happen. Like all TV shows, they are one brilliantly charismatic and imaginative writer/lead actor combo away from success. J Micheal's writing was legendary, so I do hope he finds a way back into the system.
I don't see the point of a reboot - if they're going to do something completely different, they might as well start a new franchise. I think that's what JMS should do, quite honestly.
I agree with you 100%