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I loved the series and all the movies, and I even watched 'Crusade' which was awesome. But it's been a while since I've heard of any new Babylon 5 movies. On the other hand, the series creator Michael Straczynski may have some additional clout from receiving a BAFTA award nomination for the script of Changeling and after writing the script for the blockbusterThor.

Are there any plans for new Straczynski-driven Babylon 5 works?

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  • 1
    just a tangent - JMS is also one of the re-writers of the World War Z movie script, which will hopefully be worthy of the book. I'd really love to see his star rise, he's never disappointed me Jan 18, 2011 at 22:50
  • 3
    I believe that they scrapped the JMS rewrite for WWZ, and they then had another group of people rewrite it. Jan 18, 2011 at 22:51
  • 5
    Pity. His work on the Thor script rewrite paid off pretty well. (Which makes sense; nobody's written Asgardian/human interaction in the comics as well as during his run.)
    – Tynam
    May 9, 2011 at 16:51
  • 4
    @mblase75: B5 was a proof-of-concept, and I don't think it failed at all - he did tell a story, as planned. Allowance for cast/actor/etc. rewrites was part of the plan from the beginning. Crusade was never intended to have the same kind of plan; it would have had 3-4 episode mini-arcs, building gradually into bigger plotlines over the course of a series. (That's how most TV works these days, but that's greatly due to B5s influence - which was also part of the plan.)
    – Tynam
    Mar 20, 2012 at 18:01
  • 1
    Note that requests of this nature have been discussed on Meta and the (small) consensus was that they're on-topic; meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/a/4814/20774
    – Valorum
    Mar 4, 2017 at 17:49

6 Answers 6

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2023: Further update

The reboot mentioned below is technically still in development, but with no active release date.

The new, new version is an animated movie, again announced directly by JMS on Twitter.

Update as of 2021: Yes

JMS posted on Twitter that a reboot of B5 is in development. Still subject to the pilot being accepted, but appears to be the most concrete progress towards further B5 on screen since the Lost Tales DVD.

To answer all the questions, yes, it’s true, Babylon 5 is 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.

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  • 1
    This is a horrible idea. He has an entire universe already established and he wants to just retread the same 5 years. Dec 1, 2021 at 14:58
  • and on the CW....what could go wrong? Vorlons as moody teenagers
    – NKCampbell
    Dec 1, 2021 at 15:01
  • @lucasbachmann He claims it won’t be the same story over again, but even with him working on it, I don’t have a lot of optimism for it at this point. Dec 1, 2021 at 17:46
  • 1
    @suchiuomizu after Legend of the Rangers - I'd rather he not work on anything I care about. Dec 1, 2021 at 18:43
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It appears that there are no current plans to continue:

On July 13, 2008, Straczynski revealed that he had no plans to continue The Lost Tales. He said that although the studio was interested in another disc, they wanted to budget the next installment similarly to the first. Citing his disappointment with the first release due to the low budget, Straczynski said he did not want to dilute Babylon 5's legacy with further sub-par stories. He stated that he would only return to the Babylon 5 universe if Warner Bros. wanted to do a large-budgeted cinema release.

-- Babylon 5: The Lost Tales @ Wikipedia

Like many other fans, I'd love to see more Babylon 5 tales - but, equally, I'd hate to see the canon troubled by low quality (low budget) additions.

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JMS at San Diego Comic Con 2010:

“I said to Warner Bros. a while back, 'When you’re ready to do something real with 'Babylon 5,' either a big-budget film or a TV show, if you want to do one of those two things, call me, otherwise don’t bother me.' About a month ago the phone rang. I don’t know where this is gonna go yet, but when they call you, there’s something going on. I can’t tell you what it is yet and it may not go anywhere, but there is movement in the tall grass.

He has also hinted that more news will come in April 2011, but apparently we will have to wait a little longer:

It'll be at least another few weeks as the powers that be ensure that every i has been dotted and [every] t crossed. There's always a chance things could go pear-shaped, as the Brits say, but things are looking promising for the moment.

7

As per JMS's talk at ComicCon 2011, Warner Brothers approached him about doing a new Babylon 5, and they made a deal - but then the distribution system Warner was planning for fell through (IGN has a write-up). Apparently there are still some sort of talks going on, and JMS is hopeful that some sort of series may happen. As long as the studios haven't forgotten about it (and are willing to give the support needed) I wouldn't be writing off the chances for a new show/movie.

1
  • Good to hear things are still moving.
    – user1027
    Jul 25, 2011 at 23:58
5

A newer answer:

Word is that JMS is working on a reboot of Babylon 5, but in movie form.

Everything's still in rumor-mode as of end-of-2014, though.

2

As far as I know there aren't any plans. All rumors I've heard have been unconfirmed. J. Michael Straczynski some years ago got into the Hollywood A-list so he got to produce Babylon 5: The lost tales but I think it was so unsuccessful there are no other plans for anything in the Babylon 5 universe. Quite unfortunate.

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