B5 Reboot?? Is it true??!!?!

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by LateArrival

Thought that one of the possible options for LotR was that the Rangers might take up the search for the plague cure. For the sake of continuity, perhaps the Excalibur was lost in some sort of Time Warp to explain the 21 year difference. Wasn't the plague going to be resolved with the plot veering into leftover Shadow tech and how it was being misused by Earthforce (and/or others), which was touched on in the Techo-Mage novels and possibly TMoS.

It's probably best not to twist ourselves into Gumby to explain the 21 year time difference that was never meant to be. Just remake Crusade completely, either with the original actors after NCIS finishes or with a new cast before NCIS finishes. I have no problem letting "Legend of the Rangers" fade into oblivion as a one-off that didn't work out.

[Bester]

Today, Babylon 5 is in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2023.

If the script is done, but production hasn't officially been given the greenlight, what is currently being developed?

[hypatia]

Originally Posted by Bester

If the script is done, but production hasn't officially been given the greenlight, what is currently being developed?

That's a good question, I don't actually know what "development" means in television specifically. Perhaps they are working on who might want to be part of the production company, running approximations of costs and who might be free for filming in 2023?

[Springer]

They might be doing things like concept designs for sets, ships, costumes - all on paper, for now, but so it's ready for when and if it does go into production. Remember JMS asked social media for help tracking down CGI models for the ships, so I presume there was someone at an FX house somewhere who was doing some developmental work on the ship models.

[Looney]

Originally Posted by Springer

They might be doing things like concept designs for sets, ships, costumes - all on paper, for now, but so it's ready for when and if it does go into production. Remember JMS asked social media for help tracking down CGI models for the ships, so I presume there was someone at an FX house somewhere who was doing some developmental work on the ship models.

I SOOOO hope they are somehow able to capture some of the original aesthetics when it comes to sets, costumes, and CGI. I really don't see a need for them to go dramatically different, but they probably will.

[Springer]

I think the sets might be very different - think more like the aesthetics of The Expanse – and I don't mind too much about the costumes either way, but I don't want the ships to change too much. When I see a Minbari ship, or a Narn ship, or a Vorlon ship, I want to be able to recognise it as such. In fact, I hope they don't change some of those designs at all, other than adding more textures and details.

[hypatia]

Originally Posted by Springer

I think the sets might be very different - think more like the aesthetics of The Expanse – and I don't mind too much about the costumes either way, but I don't want the ships to change too much. When I see a Minbari ship, or a Narn ship, or a Vorlon ship, I want to be able to recognise it as such. In fact, I hope they don't change some of those designs at all, other than adding more textures and details.

I never even thought about that, but in Star Trek the ships didn't change in really big ways between the new iterations of the series. I doubt there would be any reason to do much more than make them look sleeker, somehow.

I can't recall if it was here or somewhere else on the internet I heard/read a rough description of the reboot's series premise. The description included waking up something that had been sleeping for something like a million years. Do you suppose that would be the Vorlons or Shadows, or will the Minbari be promoted to a much older race than it was in the original series?

[Jan]

Originally Posted by hypatia

I can't recall if it was here or somewhere else on the internet I heard/read a rough description of the reboot's series premise. The description included waking up something that had been sleeping for something like a million years. Do you suppose that would be the Vorlons or Shadows, or will the Minbari be promoted to a much older race than it was in the original series?

You're likely thinking of this from the Deadline article that announced the reboot last September:

Described as a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the original, Straczynski will pen the script for a new potential version of the former syndicated drama from Warner Bros. TV. The new take revolves around John Sheridan (originally played by Bruce Boxleitner), an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate explorers and alien diplomats at a time of uneasy peace and the constant threat of war. His arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined, as an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us, putting Sheridan and the rest of the B5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race.

[hypatia]

Yes, that's it. Thanks, Jan! So it isn't necessarily a sleeping race, I remembered that incorrectly. But that's definitely where I got the news from. I know it's still not being filmed yet and may not even be solidly negotiated (yet), but I really am holding out hope for 2023.

[Springer]

Weird, I also thought that the announcement statement alluded to a sleeping race! Just shows our unconscious bias towards what we expect to happen based on the original show. That's going to be the new show's hardest challenge, I think, getting past the expectations of fans of the original show who expect things to play out a certain way.

So reading that statement in a new light, it almost sounds like it could be a mix of the first contact with the Minbari, and first contact with the Shadows. Wonder which it will be, or perhaps neither, a new race?