B5 reboot on the CW with JMS

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**Strg Alt**

warboss wrote:
No, this is not an out of season April Fool's joke.

https://deadline.com/2021/09/babylon-5-series-reboot-j-michael-straczynski-development-cw-1234845022/

A new version of the Emmy-winning space opera television series Babylon 5 is in the works. The CW has put in development Babylon 5, described as a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the critically acclaimed 1990s series, from original series creator J. Michael Straczynski and Warner Bros. Television.

Written by Straczynski, the reboot revolves around John Sheridan (played by Bruce Boxleitner in the original series), 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.

I want to hope but I think I'm more afraid. Afraid that there will be a Season One prom episode and the feud between G'kar and Lando will be either an ex-lover's quarrel or an intergalactic love triangle with them and Delenn or possibly Vir.

I expect at least a single gender swap like Starbuck suffered in BSG.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mr Morden wrote:
I really enjoyed both DS9 and B5 and would enjoy seeing it come back or be redone.

I thnk the ships looked and look good - especially the more alien ones - Shadows, Minbari, Vorlons and the league races.

The risk is it could end up like the Battlestar remake - going wildly off-base to the original story and perhaps changing the very nature of core characters.

Having enjoyed BSG in its orginal form I absolutely loved the modern BSG - if they did a new B5 show to the same standard that would be fantastic.

Agreed. New B5 will need a leggy blonde though.

**Strg Alt**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
If you thought the characters in nBSG were just normal, flawed people, please get out of whatever situation you are trapped in. They were all awful, awful people. If I knew normal people like them, I would cut them out of my life. In fact, I did that anyway with the fictional jerks.

I disturbs keep greatly that fiction has become so pointlessly dark and gritty that the audience can mistake self-destructive jerkasses for normal and edgy for mature. Is there an “Overton Window” for how people view society and human interaction? I feel like this show was part of a massive shift in that window since the early 2000’s. It’s messed up.

Uhm, I think too that those characters depicted in the new BSG were more lifelike. Also never underestimate what it means to live 24/7 in the fear of being wiped out by merciless killer robots. People just become unstable and will suffer from a magnitude of mental problems.
I was honestly a bit surprised that ONLY a single character committed suicide on screen as such abysmal conditions usually cause a higher death rate.

**Strg Alt**

Jadenim wrote:
There’s no need for any gender swaps in B5, because it had plenty of decent female characters to begin with. Now it will be interesting to see who gets cast, because there’s actually a lot of the roles that are gender neutral, so there could be some shuffling (I believe in the pilot the XO was male and the Doctor female, for example). It could actually be a useful way to help break the link / comparisons to the previous cast.

Off the top of my head, the only two that need to be a specific gender are Londo and G’Kar; Londo because the Centauri Empire being a Roman style absolute patriarchy is kind of integral to their whole feel and storyline and G’Kar because if he’s not male the Londo-G’Kar storyline would become real weird and creepy.

As for leggy blonde’s, I don’t think JMS is that kind of writer / producer, but it does raise an interesting question; the original series was very limited by being a mainstream US network show, as to how dark or naughty it could get. With modern norms, it’s possible that it could be made with more mature content, which would real suit some of the darker elements of the story.

I wouldn't expect anything to be set in stone apart from the action taking place on a space station and the Vorlons and Shadows showing up at some point. So anything goes.
Therefore the Centauri Empire could be revamped as a matriarchy and Londo and G'kar gender swapped. This would of course cause a lot of drama in the fan base like Starbuck's gender swap did at the time but the actress of Kara Trace performed well. So if they should find two suitable actresses it could be accomplished.

**Strg Alt**

The same was the case with BSG. Doesn't matter if it's dead as long as the reboot is done well and the plot addresses themes of today. New people will begin to watch the show.

Though one thing is worth mentioning: I am not remembering B5 too well but for the sake of gaining a new audience the devs should limit the amount of silly alien designs, if there were any.
I still remember the actor of Cpt. Adama say this in an interview: "As soon as the devs get the silly idea of introducing aliens into BSG I am out. I don't care how they do it but I won't be around anymore. Adama will just suffer a stroke on screen and I am gone."