Get in the 'Gate: Pluto TV launches 24/7 streaming channel that is all 'Stargate' all the time

Pluto TV has decided to fire up the Stargate, walk through the ensuing portal, and never look back. As of today (Friday, April 1), the online television service is offering an entire channel devoted to the sci-fi franchise — from the 1994 Roland Emmerich film to the three beloved spinoff TV series. All of it streaming for 24 hours, 7 days a week. What more could you really ask for?

The specific lineup includes all the movies — the '94 original we mentioned above, Stargate: Continuum, and Stargate: The Ark of Truth (the latter two were released in 2008) — as well as Seasons 1-5 of Stargate SG-1, Seasons 1-2 of Stargate Atlantis, and all seasons of SGU Stargate Universe. 

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and District 9 are also among Pluto's fresh genre offerings this month. While IMDb continues to purport that Emmerich is attached to direct a new Stargate movie (one that was intended to kick off a rebooted trilogy), the filmmaker shot down the rumor during a Moonfall-centric interview with Space.com back in February.

"It won't happen," he said plainly. "That won't happen because I thought that the people who watch the TV show are the main fans, and to make a movie after 25 years which has the same characters, it's not possible. Right? ... And so I decided not to do it, but I hope that somebody's redoing Stargate and starts a real series of movies."

He continued: "It has to be somebody new and interesting. And I just don't want to go there anymore. It's like, because we had this idea, at one point to do it as a TV show, but it was way too expensive … You know, everything I do has to have a certain quality level. So, actually I said no to the TV show because it was like only $800,000 [per episode]. And I knew that at that time they were shooting, like, X-Files that spent like $1.6, $1.8 [million per episode] ... I knew I cannot do what I wanted to do with that."

Speaking with Variety for a 25th anniversary retrospective in 2019, Stargate's co-screenwriter, Dean Devlin, addressed the failed reboot. “We tried to get it going a couple of years ago, just before we did the Independence Day sequel, but afterwards, it kind of fell apart," he admitted. "Honestly, I’m so much happier working independently. That’s how we did the first movie. I am not really anxious to go work in a studio again. So, I think that may have also been a factor in why it fell apart.”

Devlin recently partnered up with SYFY for a brand-new original series, The Ark, which began production this week.

There's also been a lingering TV revival of the SG-1 series in early stages of development from original SG-1 producer Brad Wright, though there's been little news lately. There's also the question of how Amazon's acquisition of MGM (which owns the Stargate franchise) could affect any plans for a revival or reboot.