When a beloved TV show ends before its time, fans understandably scramble for something more — more adventures with these characters, a way to wrap up dangling storylines in an official way … just something. Five years after Stargate Atlantis went off the air, we have a glimmer of hope.

A 4-issue comic book series for Stargate: Extinction has appeared on the long-look release schedule from publisher BOOM! Studios. The date is still to be announced — and it’s evidently far enough out that Newsarama quickly removed Stargate: Extinction from the BOOM! announcement, leading to some confusion over whether this is a done deal.

GateWorld’s request to the publisher for confirmation had not yet been returned at press time.

The original Extinction movie script was written by Atlantis executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, with a story idea originally intended to open up Season Six of the show. After SGA was cancelled in 2008 the script itself was commissioned as a stand-alone movie, which was to air on Syfy Channel before a DVD/Blu-ray release — and the possibility of future movies. After the home video market softened and the global markets crashed, MGM (itself nearing bankruptcy at the time) got cold feet.

“We’re big fans of this enduring sci-fi franchise,” BOOM! said in the original announcement, “and after bringing our skills and passion to other great properties like FARSCAPE and PLANET OF THE APES, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on another long-running favorite: STARGATE. STARGATE: EXTINCTION has been known to die-hard fans as producer-writers’ Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie’s unmade sequel to STARGATE: ATLANTIS. Now, BOOM! Studios is proud to help bring this story to four-color life.”

BOOM! also released a very brief teaser for the story:

Atlantis is the new home of Stargate command. The ancient city’s Stargate finally opens. It will lead to the team’s most epic adventure yet … and may destroy Atlantis itself.

Illustrator Piotr Kowalski will do the art for the Extinction comics.

Mallozzi has revealed a number of story elements from Extinction in the years since, which you can find here and on his blog. The action picks up in the months after Atlantis‘s final episode, with the great city-ship relocated to the secure distance of Earth’s moon and The Powers That Be debating over how best to make use of the Ancient city and its technology.

Mallozzi and Mullie come to the medium with sci-fi comic experience in 2012’s Dark Matter, which was released by Dark Horse Comics and is currently being shopped for a live-action television series.

But the script for Extinction belongs to MGM, and so the final decision on allowing for a comic book adaptation rests with the studio. Mallozzi blogged in December about the possibility of a comic series based on the Extinction script, which is otherwise gathering dust on the shelf at MGM. He encouraged fans wanting to see the story — and any other future for the Stargate television properties — to contact MGM and ask for it.

The BOOM! release is not the first time that Stargate has been tried in comics — and it’s actually not even the first attempt at an Atlantis continuation that follows up on the events of the final episode, “Enemy At the Gate.” Dynamite Entertainment published two limited-issue “Daniel Jackson” and “Vala Mal Doran” series in 2009 and 2010, but plans for an Atlantis series written by Doug Murray, as well as on-going SG-1 and SGU comics, never materialized.

Years before that, Avatar Press published Stargate SG-1 comics under its “Pulsar” imprint from 2003 to 2005. (Check out GateWorld’s Stargate comic archive to see more.)

Between 2010 and 2013 Fandemonium also published a series of six Stargate Atlantis: Legacy novels picking up the story from where the show left off. But the comic series will come with the advantage of not only input from the writers of the live-action series, but their first-hand authorship.

BOOM! is also releasing a new Robocop series, from author Frank Miller. The Robocop films are also produced by MGM.

The comic book medium has proved quite successful for continuations of other popular sci-fi and fantasy series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

Stay with GateWorld for the latest developments on the Stargate: Extinction front.

(Thanks to Sean for the tip!)