Joseph Mallozzi still holds out hope that SGU will find life somewhere, and soon



There were a lot of things wrong with the second season of “Stargate: Universe,” and it started with the scheduling.

Whether that will be enough to convince another network to take on a third season, that’s yet to be seen. But one thing is for sure: Syfy’s decision to cancel SGU will ripple through the Stargate franchise, including a potential “Stargate: Atlantis” movie.

“I’m sorry to say, but the cancellation puts the brakes on whatever progress the SGA movie had made in the past month,” executive producer Joe Mallozzi recently wrote in his blog. He added that the move shelves SGA “indefinitely.”

Mallozzi added that some Stargate fans who were not exactly supporters of SGU may not find the promise they hoped for in an SGU cancellation as such a move actually hurts the franchise as a whole, not help certain aspects of it.

“Contrary to what some may think, the cancellation of SGU is very bad news for those looking forward to an ‘Atlantis’ movie,” Mallozzi said.

However, there still might be some life left in SGU. The sets at Bridge Studios in Vancouver, B.C., remain standing while the final fate of the show is decided. While Mallozzi wouldn’t provide details, it does seem that Metro Goldwyn Mayer is shopping SGU to other networks in the hopes that there will be a third season. He added that some “positive progress” toward a third season could happen as early as next week.

Producers like Mallozzi saw the writing on the wall when Season 2’s numbers started to come in. By then, the show had shifted to a fall premiere, on a Tuesday — where it went head-to-head with a powerful network lineup that included “NCIS: Los Angeles,” the second most-watched scripted program on television. While the days for the show seemed to be numbered, no one expected them to be as numbered as they were.

“We held out hope and, as production continued on Season 2, positive word from various places gave us hope that the show would come back for, at the very least, a third and final season,” Mallozzi said, mirroring a path that Syfy gave “Battlestar Galactica” a few years back. “Many of us were shocked by the abruptness of the cancellation decision.”

Still, a lot has to happen for there to be more Stargate. There are no series ideas in the works to replace SGU, so continuing the franchise now lies with the previous shows like SGU. DVD and iTunes sales could go a long way to helping the show, Mallozzi said.

“Stargate: Universe” returns in the spring to air its final 10 episodes on Syfy.