29 Years Ago, the Best ’90s Sci-fi Series Officially Expanded (And We’re Still Waiting on the Next Reboot)

While one iconic sci-fi franchise expanded with a brilliant spinoff almost 30 years ago this week, fans of the series are still waiting for a modern reboot to bring back its story again. The history of screen sci-fi is littered with franchises that never quite came together. There are the outright flops that should have spawned franchises, like Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s ambitious futuristic satire Southland Tales or 2012’s brutal, action-forward dystopian thriller Dredd.

Then there are the shows that were a little too ambitious or heavy on world building to win over mainstream viewers in their pivotal first season, like Ridley Scott’s trippy sci-fi Raised By Wolves. However, some of the trickiest franchises in the genre are those that flit in and out of existence with regular reboots, re-imaginings, and spinoffs, giving their fandom new hope only to be hit with a premature cancellation again. The Stargate franchise, which debuted its iconic spinoff Stargate SG-1 in July 1997, is one such series.

Stargate SG-1 First Premiered On July 27, 1997

Based on blockbuster director Roland Emmerich’s hit 1994 movie Stargate, Stargate SG-1 picked up a year after the movie’s ending to centre on the titular SG-1 team. The military unit used the eponymous Stargate to travel to other planets, exploring the galaxy, encountering alien races, and regularly protecting the world from extraterrestrial threats. Stargate SG-1 was a massive hit, lasting ten seasons and 214 episodes between 1997 and 2007. Although the show moved from Showtime to Syfy midway through its run, the franchise continued long after its series finale.

There were the spinoff movies Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum in 2008, shortly after Stargate SG-1 ended, as well as 2005’s five-season spinoff Stargate Atlantis, 2009’s spinoff Stargate Universe, 2002’s animated spinoff show Stargate Infinity, and 2018’s web series Stargate Origins. Even without getting into the many tie-in games and other media, it is clear that Stargate can rival Star Trek and The X-Files as one of the biggest small-screen sci-fi franchises of the ‘90s.

The Stargate Reboot’s Cancellation Is A Bad Sign For The Sci-Fi Franchise

However, the incredible ten-season run of Stargate SG-1 has not yet proven enough to justify a reboot for the franchise. In November 2025, Prime Video announced that Martin Gero, who previously worked on Stargate Universe, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate SG-1 itself, was busy writing a new series in the franchise for the streaming service. However, in early June 2026, Deadline announced that this spinoff was dead in the water.

With both Emmerich and the original movie’s co-writer Dean Devlin on board as executive producers, Gero’s spinoff series sounded like a perfect continuation of the franchise. Although sci-fi legend Kurt Russell was replaced by Richard Dean Anderson in Stargate SG-1, the shows of the franchise still became a proving ground for future stars when everyone from Morena Baccarin to Jason Momoa and Ming-Na Wen played parts in the original shows.

Sadly, the cancellation of Prime Video’s promising reboot means that viewers will be waiting a while before they can see another outing from the iconic franchise. Stargate may be as popular as ever, but the streaming service seemingly wasn’t willing to invest in another show from the franchise in 2026.