Kwahrezal wrote:
The CW nuked the excellent Swamp Thing show because executives personally disliked it. It also happened to be the only DC show which didn't ape Marvel movies. There's a lot of pressure on the people cranking out all of these derivative works and remakes to stick to that formula: twee, glib dialogue with YA level character development and CGI-heavy action scenes, and JMS has to know that B5 can easily get the Swamp Thing treatment if he strays too much.

I also thought that the cheesy look of the show and the wooden acting in the first few movies/episodes were part of the show's charm, but that is undoubtedly a minority opinion.

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed after O'Hare's death that the actor had had severe mental illness. During the filming of the first season of Babylon 5, O'Hare began having paranoid delusions, and halfway through, his hallucinations worsened. It became increasingly difficult for O'Hare to continue working, his behavior was becoming increasingly erratic, and he was often at odds with his colleagues. Straczynski offered to suspend production for several months to accommodate treatment; however O'Hare feared that such a hiatus would put the series at risk, and he didn't want to jeopardize others' jobs. Straczynski agreed to keep O'Hare's condition secret to protect his career, and O'Hare agreed to complete the first season, but would be written out of the second season so that he could seek treatment. His departure from the cast was announced without explanation, except that it was mutual and amicable.

His treatments were only partially successful. He reappeared in a cameo appearance early in season two ("The Coming of Shadows") and returned in season three for a two-part episode ("War Without End") which closed his character's story arc. At that time, Straczynski promised O'Hare to keep his condition secret "to my grave". O'Hare told him to instead "keep the secret to my grave", arguing that fans deserved to eventually learn the real reason for his departure, and that his experience could raise awareness and understanding for people with mental illness. He made no further appearances on Babylon 5, but continued to support the show and appeared at conventions and signing events until his retirement from public appearances in 2000.

On September 28, 2012, Straczynski posted that O'Hare had had a heart attack in New York City five days earlier, and had remained in a coma until his death that day. Eight months later, Straczynski revealed the circumstances of O'Hare's departure from Babylon 5 at a presentation about the series at the Phoenix Comicon.

Straczynski took his Twitter account over the weekend to address new rumors swirling around about the future of his sci-fi series, a major creative force in the genre in the 1990s that remains one of the most influential series of its time. While he didn't offer any actual news on the future of the series, Straczysnki stressed that there's a good reason: There isn't news, and anyone who says there's news is lying.

J. Michael Straczynski on Twitter wrote:We're all impatient for B5 news, and there are tons of rumors from bloggers and posters and even some cast, but there's truly no decision because the decision makers haven't decided. When that decision does get made, it will come to me first, not to any of those folks --- and when it does I'll get it out as soon as possible or at minimum let you know that something has been decided. Through 30+ years of rumors and online nonsense I've always dealt straight with the B5 fan community. Waiting is hard, but wait we must until *something* is decided

Reports of Babylon 5's death seem to, once again, have been at least somewhat exaggerated. Following the release of The CW's 2023-2024 schedule, the network confirmed that virtually every project started under prior management had been released to studios. That means, basically, that they won't be showing up on The CW, but might still be developed somewhere else if the producers want to give it a try. That left most fans assuming that the planned Babylon 5 reboot was in trouble, especially since the network seems to be focusing on inexpensive, unscripted programs rather than the expensive genre fare that had kept The CW afloat for years.

In a fan Q&A, though, TVLine suggested that the project remains in limbo, although all movement (good or bad) had petered out as a result of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, which began in May. This repeats a mantra that has been on creator J. Michael Straczynski's lips for a while now: when there's definitive news, he'll know. And when he knows, he'll let the fans know.