Stargate movie director Roland Emmerich says that the upcoming feature film reboot will adopt some conceptual elements from the long-running and beloved television series, Stargate SG-1.

That doesn’t mean characters, technology, or storylines, though — more like its approach to the Stargate team.

“Elements of [Stargate SG-1] will flow into the reboot, definitely,” Emmerich said in a Q&A with readers of Empire magazine, which he is guest-editing this week. “The amount of characters, for instance. It’s not a two-hander like the first one with James Spader and Kurt Russell, this time it’s a bigger group.”

That sounds like more of an ensemble story, in contrast with the original film which featured two major characters (the stoic warrior and the brilliant archaeologist) and then filled out that first team through the gate with supporting characters such as Kawalsky (John Diehl), Ferretti (French Stewart), and several Redshirts.

SG-1 departed from this a bit by establishing a larger team of major characters, adding astrophysicist Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and alien warrior Teal’c (Christopher Judge).

“Yes, there’s still the James Spader character and the Kurt Russell character, but other people are equally important,” Emmerich added. That could mean a reboot that still features Colonel Jack O’Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson , with new actors filling those roles. Or Emmerich might just mean that those character types will be present on the new team.

The director also said that Russell and Spader wouldn’t be in the film (unless they can be booked for cameos). “It’ll be a younger cast,” he said.

Emmerich also torpedoed the old fan theory that 1996’s Independence Day was originally intended to be a Stargate movie sequel. “That’s one of the myths out there,” he said. “There’s no overlap between those two worlds.”

The new Stargate film is still at the script stage, with Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods (Independence Day: Resurgence) on screenwriting duty.

Head over to Empire Online for more from Emmerich on Independence Day and more!