…anywhere? WB makes shows for all platforms, most content creators do.I think there are some seriously premature reactions here. I love the original B5, it's my all time favorite show. I would like there to be more of it, and if a reboot is the way JMS makes that happen, then it's great freaking news.
Sure, I'd love to see an expansion of the story, but obviously that's not what is on the table. WB owns the TV rights to B5, so where else would it go but CW?
I hope this is good, if it's not, whatever, that takes NOTHING away from the original. This could be the way to get B5 into the main stream in a way it hasn't been for decades, and that is good news to me.
With Claudia saying original cast are involved in some way, there are tons of ways this could go that could be genuinely exciting. JMS gave us B5, and I don't know anyone else I would trust more to bring it back respectfully.
When was the last time you actually watched anything on the CW? Because that sounds more like a bad parody of what people expect from the CW not what most of their content is actually like.
I'm sorry for the poor writers and actors who sign up for this career destroying show ..‘Babylon 5’ Reboot in the Works at The CW
Original series creator J. Michael Straczynski will pen the script for the update.www.hollywoodreporter.com
To answer all the questions, yes, it's true, Babylon 5 is now in active development as a series for the CW. We have some serious fans over at the network, and they're eager to see this show happen. I'm hip deep into writing the pilot now, and will be running the series upon pickup. The network understands the uniqueness of Babylon 5 and is giving me a great deal of latitude with the storytelling.
As noted in the announcement, this is a reboot from the ground up rather than a continuation, for several reasons. Heraclitus wrote, "You cannot step in the same river twice, for the river has changed, and you have changed." In the years since B5, I've done a ton of other TV shows and movies, adding an equal number of tools to my toolbox, all of which I can bring to bear on the question: if I were creating Babylon 5 today, for the first time, knowing what I now know as a writer, what would it look like? How would it use all the storytelling tools and technological resources available in 2021 that were not on hand then? How can it be used to reflect the world in which we live, and the questions we are asking and confronting every day? Fans regularly point out how prescient the show was and is of our current world; it would be fun to take a shot at looking further down the road.
So we will not be retelling the same story in the same way because of what Heraclitus said about the river. There would be no fun and no surprises. Better to go the way of Westworld or Battlestar Galactica where you take the original elements that are evergreens and put them in a blender with a ton of new, challenging ideas, to create something both fresh and familiar.
To those who have asked why we're not just doing a continuation…for a network series like this, it can't be done because over half our cast are still stubbornly on the other side of the Rim. How do you telling continuing story of our original Londo without the original Vir? Or G'Kar? How do you tell Sheridan's story without Delenn? Or the story of B5 without Franklin? Garibaldi? Zack?
The original Babylon 5 was ridiculously innovative: the first to use CGI to create ships and characters, and among the very first to shoot widescreen with a vigorous 5.1 mix. Most of all, for the first time, Babylon 5 introduced viewers accustomed to episodic television to the concept of a five-year arc with a pre-planned beginning, middle and end…creating a brand new paradigm for television storytelling that has subsequently become the norm. That tradition for innovation will continue in this new iteration, and I hope to create additional new forms of storytelling that will further push the television medium to the edge of what's possible.
Let me conclude by just saying how supportive and enthusiastic everyone at the CW has been and is being with this project. They understand the unique position Babylon 5 occupies both in television and with its legions of fans, and are doing everything they can to ensure the maximum in creative freedom, a new story that will bring in new viewers while honoring all that has come before.
haha I snorted
most do but not all. Superman and Lois and Stargirl have shorter seasons.
I am so god damn hyped after reading his tweets. Honestly never thought I'd see the day.
Babylon 5 is my all time favorite TV show. Hell it might be my favorite piece of media.
1. More Babylon 5 from JMS is very exciting
2. I wish it were a new story and not a remake. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas were lightning in a bottle, there's no way you're going to recapture that.
3. The CW is definitely not an ideal place for this to land.
But still, more B5 from JMS, yaay.
PTEN was a joint venture between WB and Chris-Craft, which itself went out of business 20 years ago. B5 TV rights have always rested with WB.something must have happened with Primetime TV or whoever the co-financier was. Maybe they got bought out or something? Were they part of the Discovery merger somehow?
This makes me feel very, very good about this. It's not often that the original creator gets a chance to outright reboot their own work, and the results might be very interesting. Just as he undoubtedly has come up with new stories to tell in that universe, he's probably has a list of different angles, things he wished he'd done differently then, and would do differently now.
CW? Come the fuck on... The CG is going to be worse than the original series...
PTEN was a joint venture between WB and Chris-Craft, which itself went out of business 20 years ago. B5 TV rights have always rested with WB.
All this distrust of the CW. Why not see how it goes before being so judgemental? JMS said in his tweets he has wide creative latitude as the show runner and there are many at the network who are enthusiastic fans of Babylon 5 who understand the original show's unique position in television.
That was one of the big selling points for Lost Tales for me. Seeing the station rendered on something other than a 1993 Amiga was glorious (even if the stories were a bit boring).I'm not too familiar with CW, but even the meh B5 movies that seemed fairly low budget did much better in CG than that old stuff just on the basis of resolution alone. Lost Tales had a few shots of the station that were pretty nice to look at.
That was one of the big selling points for Lost Tales for me. Seeing the station rendered on something other than a 1993 Amiga was glorious (even if the stories were a bit boring).
I think that the stage play style of the stories helped with that. I'm sure that JMS wasn't pleased with the extreme budget limitations that were in place with Lost Tales, at all, but you're right that they made it look as good as they could with those limits in place!What's funny is that JMS was displeased with the low-budget aspects of Lost Tales, which is a big part of the reason more weren't made. Yeah, the hallways on the station were oddly vacant most of the time. But other than that, I thought they looked good by 2007 DTV standards!
I think that the stage play style of the stories helped with that. I'm sure that JMS wasn't pleased with the extreme budget limitations that were in place with Lost Tales, at all, but you're right that they made it look as good as they could with those limits in place!