Amazon tries Stargate again with Jac Schaeffer, four months after dropping its last reboot

Amazon MGM Studios is developing a new Stargate series with WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer, Deadline reports. A writers room has opened in New York. It is the studio's second attempt at the franchise in under a year: the first, from Stargate veteran Martin Gero, got a series order in November 2025 and was dropped in June.

That earlier project was not a pitch that stalled. It had a 20-week writers room behind it and was in pre-production in the UK when it was pulled. Four months later, Amazon is starting again.

Two attempts in a year

• 2022: Amazon completes its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. Stargate is among the first MGM titles identified for new series or films.
• November 2025: Prime Video gives Martin Gero's reboot a series order.
• June 2026: it emerges that the project will not move forward, after a completed 20-week writers room and pre-production in the UK.
• October 2026: Schaeffer is developing a new series under her overall deal with the studio. Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell executive produce with her. Amazon declined to comment.

Deadline describes the new project as "the second try". Measured by how far each got, the first try had a series order, a full writers room and a production base in the UK. The second has a writers room and no order yet.

Whose franchise it is

Deadline calls Stargate "the popular MGM IP". That is mostly right, with one notable exception. According to Wikipedia, the franchise is owned by Amazon MGM Studios, but the rights to the original 1994 film belong to StudioCanal.

The film, directed by Roland Emmerich and co-written with producer Dean Devlin, was released on October 28, 1994, by MGM and Carolco, and grossed $197 million worldwide. The television franchise that followed was built by other people: Stargate SG-1 was created in 1997 by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner as a sequel to the film.

The franchise, counted fully

Deadline lists SG-1 (1997 to 2007), Stargate Atlantis (2004 to 2009), Stargate Universe (2009 to 2011) and the animated Stargate Infinity (2002 to 2003). Its list leaves out one entry.

• Stargate (1994): the film.
• Stargate SG-1 (1997 to 2007): the sequel series.
• Stargate Infinity (2002 to 2003): animated, outside the main continuity.
• Stargate Atlantis (2004 to 2009): spin-off.
• Stargate Universe (2009 to 2011): the last Stargate series on television. It ended on a cliffhanger.
• Stargate Origins (2018): a prequel web series, missing from Deadline's list.

The main continuity ran for more than 15 years and 18 seasons, 364 episodes in all. Comics later picked up where the shows stopped: from 2016, American Mythology published new Stargate Atlantis stories, and from 2017 new Stargate Universe comics resolved the cliffhanger the series left behind.

So the last new Stargate television of the main story aired 15 years ago, and its ending was finished in comics.

SG-1 itself had a complicated life. It debuted on Showtime on July 27, 1997, moved to the Sci-Fi Channel after its fifth season, and was taken off the air in 2007. Two direct-to-DVD films, The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum, were made to tie up its loose ends. A feature film once planned to bridge into Atlantis became a two-part season finale instead.

The acquisition has already cost the franchise once

Amazon's purchase of MGM has not only produced new projects. According to Wikipedia, it also interrupted or killed the licensing behind a Stargate role-playing game and its planned expansions, which had been treated as canon. The deal that put Stargate near the top of Amazon's list also stopped a Stargate game line in its tracks.

Who is making it

Schaeffer created WandaVision. Harold and Tunnell join her as executive producers. Variety first reported the project; Deadline's sources confirmed it.

No details of the story, setting or connection to earlier series have been released. The franchise's history allows almost anything: a direct continuation, a reboot from the film, or an entirely new team using the same device.

Stalls are not new to the franchise either. Stargate Universe was pitched to the Sci Fi Channel in the fall of 2007, just before the writers' strike put the project on hold. It went ahead later and became the last Stargate series on television.

What is still unknown

• Whether this is a reboot or a continuation. Nothing has been said.
• Why Gero's version was dropped after reaching pre-production.
• Whether it gets a series order. A writers room is not an order; the last attempt had both and still stopped.
• How StudioCanal's rights to the 1994 film affect it, if at all.

Amazon bought MGM in 2022 with Stargate near the top of its list. Four years later, it has one dropped Stargate series and one writers room.