By Grabthar’s hammer, by the Sons of Warvan, you shall be adapted for television! After a seeming failure to launch, Amazon’s Galaxy QuestOpens in a new tab TV series is spooling up their FTL engines to make the leap back into pre-production. According to The Hollywood ReporterOpens in a new tab, the TV show—based on the 1999 cult classic sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest—has hired actor, writer, and comedian Paul ScheerOpens in a new tab (The League, Veep) to take over as writer on the series from the original film’s writer, Robert Gordon. As the host of a podcast all about cult classic movies, How Did This Get Made?Opens in a new tab, Scheer seems uniquely well suited to carry on the spirit of the original film, and transform it into a longer, serialized story.
With an all-star ensemble cast including Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, and Justin Long, Galaxy Quest felt like a love letter to fandomOpens in a new tab, especially fans of Star Trek. It told the story of stars of a once-popular sci-fi series, who eke out a living from working Autograph Alley at comic-cons across the country, wh0 suddenly find themselves beamed aboard a real version of the ship from their show and embroiled in an intergalactic conflict that’s all too real.
First announced in 2015Opens in a new tab, Galaxy Quest has had a rocky road on its mission to become a TV show due to conflicting production schedules and unexpected tragedy. After Alan Rickman passed away in January 2016, Amazon halted plans to adapt the filmOpens in a new tab to a TV series out of respect for their departed colleague. When Sam Rockwell appeared on the Nerdist PodcastOpens in a new tab last April, he broke the news to Chris Hardwick:
“They were gonna do a [Galaxy Quest] sequel on Amazon, and we were ready to sign up for it…and you know, Alan Rickman passed away and then Tim Allen wasn’t available. He has a show, and everybody’s schedule was all weird…It was gonna shoot like right now…And how do you fill that void of Alan Rickman? That’s a hard void to fill.”
With the recent cancellationOpens in a new tab of Tim Allen’s ABC sitcom Last Man Standing, it appears the star could now have availability for a new Galaxy Quest project. As for how they’ll address the absence of an icon like Rickman, only time and Paul Scheer will tell.
What do you want from a Galaxy Quest TV series? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: DreamWorks Pictures
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star WarsOpens in a new tab and the AvengersOpens in a new tab. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCaseyOpens in a new tab).
Here’s what every movie space battle gets wrong
[brightcove video_id=”5428981955001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8x”]
