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Dean Devlin Talks Mayan-Influenced Stargate Sequel We'll Never Get to See
There were big plans for a second Stargate film, but we'll likely never see them now.
Though the wider universe of Stargate has continued to expand since the first film's release nearly 30 years ago, there are still some ideas that the franchise has never been able to explore. Now, Dean Devlin, who has been busy with his new SYFY series The Ark, is shedding light on the abandoned film sequel ideas he cooked up with Roland Emmerich, and the trilogy they'll never get to make.
Speaking to Yahoo about some of the films in his long career that he never got to make — including a Godzilla follow-up and a discarded idea for Independence Day 2 — Devlin laid out some of the big ideas behind what would have been the second and third Stargate films. As Devlin explained, he and Emmerich lost a degree of control over the franchise when MGM bought the film from their financiers right before its release, leaving some of the key future Stargate decisions out of their hands. But that doesn't mean they didn't have ideas.
RELATED: The Ark's Dean Devlin Reveals What a Pivotal Stargate Scene Taught Him About Writing
"Roland and I had fallen in love with the idea of taking things that are part of our own mythological subconscious," Devlin said when talking about the unmade Stargate 2. "The first movie asks, 'Did aliens build the pyramids?' The second one was going to deal with, 'Why are there pyramids in Mayan culture?'"
What would Stargate 2 have looked like?
According to Devlin, the idea was to build a larger story that would tie in aspects of mythology and folklore from around the world, bringing back Stargate stars Kurt Russell and James Spader for two additional films that would eventually lay out an entire alien mystery enveloping Egyptian pyramids, Mayan pyramids, and much, much more.
"The third one was going to tie everything together," Devlin said. "We were gonna have the Yeti, we were gonna have the Loch Ness Monster. It was all going to make sense how these things are tied together."
Sadly, Devlin and Emmerich did not get to make their proposed movie sequels, but that didn't slow the franchise down for long. The first TV series inspired by the film, Stargate SG-1, premiered three years later, with Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks taking over for Russell and Spader, and its success launched a bit of a Stargate TV empire. From 1997 to 2011, there was pretty much always some version of Stargate on television, and it all tied back to the concepts originated by Devlin and Emmerich.
These days, the future of Stargate is a little more up in the air, but there's definitely been some progress. Amazon's purchase of MGM and its assets has put the franchise in line for a reboot of some kind, but while we might see more Stargate soon, it probably won't be with Devlin on board.
"It looked like we were going to reboot it from the beginning and do all three films, but that didn't happen," Devlin said. "I think my run on Stargate is probably done at this point."
Want more Dean Devlin sci-fi adventures? Check out his new SYFY original series The Ark, streaming now on Peacock, and look out for Season 2 next year.
