Sam Rockwell has revealed that an honest-to-goodness, ready-to-be-filmed, yes-this-is-actually-going-to-happen Galaxy Quest sequel was in the works but the deal fell apart after Alan Rickman’s death. The news, which will surely crush the hearts of the Galaxy Quest super fans still reeling from Rickman’s passing, was divulged by Rockwell during a Nerdist podcast.

“They were going to do a sequel on Amazon,” the actor said. “We were ready to sign up, and [then] Alan Rickman passed away and Tim Allen wasn’t available — he has a show — and everybody’s schedule was all weird. It was going to shoot, like, right now. And how do you fill that void of Alan Rickman? That’s a hard void to fill.”

Galaxy Quest, a 1999 comedy about a group of once-famous, sci-fi TV actors (think Star Trek) who wind up fighting real space baddies, has become a cult hit. The movie even spawned a comic book series that was published by IDW in 2015. Rumors of a sequel have been in the air since the time the movie was released. The idea that the original cast was so close to making good on all of those years of speculation is definitely heartbreaking. Even more upsetting, though, is the tragic realization that even if somehow, someway there ever is a Galaxy Quest 2, we won’t get to see Rickman as Sir Alexander Dane, delivering the character’s famous line: “By Grabthar’s hammer, by the sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged.”