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Christopher Judge Pitched a Stargate SG-1 Spinoff with Parallels to Black Panther
The never-made series could have paid a Wakanda-like visit to a Jaffa homeworld in rebuilding mode.
As the stoic (and low-key funny) warrior Teal’c on Stargate SG-1, Christopher Judge ended up appearing in more SG-1 episodes over the sci-fi show’s 10 seasons than any other member of the cast. After uniting early in the series with Earth’s Stargate Command to eventually overthrow the sinister alien Goa’uld race that held an iron grip over his native Jaffa culture, Teal’c and his Jaffa mentor Bra’tac (Tony Amendola) ultimately ascended to key roles among their people, leading a late-series effort to rebuild a newly-freed Jaffa society.
Fans who got invested in how an unshackled Jaffa culture might take shape were treated only to a small taste of the Jaffas’ post-Goa’uld freedom, thanks to a Stargate SG-1 story arc that finally saw the Goa’uld defeated deep into Season 8. The Free Jaffa Nation that afterward emerged — complete with a newfound command over the wealth of Goa’uld technology they’d inherited through their victory — vied with larger SG-1 plot threads over the series’ final two seasons, competing for screen time to fully explore the Jaffas’ future to the extent that Judge, behind the scenes, already was envisioning as a possible new angle for an SG-1 spinoff series.
Christopher Judge's spinoff pitch aimed for "Stargate’s take on Black Panther"
Speaking recently on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast (via GateWorld), Judge revealed more of his ideas for what could have become a Jaffa-centric spinoff series. Fans might be surprised at just how well-developed and well-received those ideas were by MGM, which owned the rights to the Stargate franchise’s future until Amazon scooped up all things Stargate [and MGM] in a landmark 2022 acquisition.
“While I was doing God of War, my partner and I were pitching a spinoff that made it through three different regimes [at MGM],” shared Judge, famous among PlayStation fans for providing the video game voice of the gruff God of War protagonist Kratos. “This spinoff was about what happened to Teal’c and his race [the Jaffa], because at the end of the show, they’ve gained their freedom. And they now have inherited all this technology from those that they served [the Goa’uld]. So what do you do?”
As it turns out, the answer suggests an SG-1 spinoff that might’ve done for Teal'c and the Jaffa what Marvel’s Black Panther did for T'Challa and Wakanda. “Two of the [SG-1] episodes I wrote [‘Birthright’ and ‘Sacrifices’] were about the Amazonian mythology — so it would be Stargate’s take on the Amazonian mythology,” Judge explained. “So I pitched Stargate’s take on Black Panther. So we, as this insulated people, now have our freedom — we’ve inherited this technology — and now we became this culturally and technologically advanced society. So what burden comes with that? Do you help other people… or do you keep it to yourself?”
Sounds like a killer idea, right? As GateWorld subsequently sleuthed out, MGM apparently thought so, too: Judge’s spinoff concept reportedly “stayed in the mix” of new Stargate projects that the studio was considering as late as 2020. The timing proved to be unfortunate, though, falling just as the industry chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic sewed disarray into the franchise’s long-range plans — plans which did appear to be showing signs of momentum with a separate project in the works from SG-1 co-creator Brad Wright.
“…[T]he Free Jaffa spinoff, however, was still a live possibility inside the studio [at the time], even as Wright continued to develop his own [project] in parallel,” GateWorld reported. “At one point, the studio was considering Judge’s idea for another round of [web miniseries Stargate] Origins (perhaps with Wright willing to join as a creative consultant), while Wright could continue from there with the next full-fledged series to bring the franchise into a new era.”
As fate would have it, neither Wright’s project nor Judge’s survived the industry tumult of the topsy-turvy COVID era, nor, apparently, of MGM’s later absorption into a new entertainment empire.
“Three [studio] regimes loved it,” Judge reflected, during his podcast conversation, of the hopeful reception to his "Free Jaffa" spinoff concept. “And then, we were bought by Amazon.”
Looking for more sci-fi action? Check out SYFY's original series The Ark, created by Stargate universe alums Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner, with the first two seasons streaming now on Peacock.
