All of this has happened before. And all of this will happen again, it seems.
NBC has begun to develop a new Battlestar Galactica series for its Peacock streaming service, but fans of the sci-fi property will have to wait. The new series is still in the early stages of production, and there is currently no planned premiere date.
According to Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, who has been tapped as Executive Producer, “We are still in the early phases of trying to figure out the world.” He did, however, note they are closing in on what the pilot will look like. “We’ve got the basic construction of the type of story we want to tell. The part of the mythology we want to explore.”
While Esmail said he did seek Moore’s blessing before taking the project, fans who think this will be a remake or continuation of that series may be disappointed. “We’re still working on the pilot,” remarked Esmail in an interview with Collider:
Look, it’s a big universe, it’s a big world. I want to respect the Ronald Moore Battlestar. I spoke to him before I even took on the project to make sure that it’s all kosher with him. Because the last thing I want to do is step on his toes, and the one thing we both agreed on is that it won’t be a reboot of what he did. Which I think we both wanted.
Most recently, Battlestar Galactica aired on SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel) from 2003 to 2009. A four-hour miniseries pilot led to an acclaimed four season run that became a signature hit for the cable network. Created by Ronald D. Moore, the series told the bleak story of mankind’s last survivors fleeing the destruction of their homeworlds at the hands of the Cylons. Cylons were a robotic race created by man. They rebelled against their creators, evolved, and then returned to wipe man out.
The franchise began life in the 1970s. Originally created by TV legend Glen A. Larson (Magnum P.I., Knight Rider), it tells the same basic story, but with more optimism and color, and less moral ambiguity. It starred Lorne Greene as the wise leader Adama, commanding Galactica, the last Battlestar, as it leads the remnants of mankind in search of a new home on a fabled world known as Earth.
Both previous iterations of the show became a hit. But after one season, the original series was yanked due to high production costs. (It was the most expensive series ever made up until that point, costing over $1,000,000 per episode.) Producers retooled the show and revived it with a follow-up series, Galactica 1980. Hampered by a shoestring budget and network interference, the show got the axe after only ten episodes.
See Esmail’s interview with Collider below.
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