Last month we commented on Amazon's announcement of a live-action series adaptation of the fantasy God of War games. Focusing on how that potentially relates to a Stargate revival.

Our view had been optimistic but YouTuber SCI-TREK claims that efforts have stalled again, this time on Amazon's decision to shunt it to MGM+.

Quick recap - this SCI-TREK chap claims to have several inside sources and obviously while we can't verify those, his accounts have tended towards the believable.

He claims that Amazon rejected Stargate SG-1 co-creator and writer Brad Wright's proposal for not being grand enough, then they asked The Expanse writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby to have a crack at it.

In the interim the God of War series was announced with them attached, so they're officially in Amazon's orbit.

According to this guy's source, Amazon are super keen on God of War, giving it a $12 per million (US) per episode budget, and want filming to begin in a matter of months.

Which is extremely ambitious.

When talking about the possible timeline for us actually seeing new Stargate content, it was several months for writing a proposal, then probably a year or more in development before filming could begin.

He didn't comment on this but we wonder if this might support our theory that Amazon plan to use the game voice-actors - including SG-1's Christopher Judge - in the series.

With the game's story available and most of the voice cast looking like their characters, that could be a quicker road to filming.

Could Fergus and Ostby manage both God of War and Stargate?

Yes.

But an Amazon exec then flipped on the original plan of a new Stargate releasing on MGM+ in the US and Amazon Prime internationally.

To MGM+ everywhere, which would be a much smaller audience.

Fergus didn't like that or halving his budget to an average $5 million per episode.

Which he regards as undoable.

There is still will on both sides to move forward with Stargate but this version is another bust.

Does this story add up?

To our eye, not entirely. There's a missing figure in this equation - 40K, as in Warhammer.

Last month Amazon also announced a Warhammer 40K live-action series with Henry Cavill to star and executive produce.

We reckon what's more likely is that Amazon has been weighing sci-fi alternatives.

At the end of 2021, Amazon was reported to be negotiating a deal for another sci-fi game adaptation, Mass Effect. After which there has been no official news.

Stargate was a niche popular series from several decades ago.

The Mass Effect trilogy was very popular and successful, but included a range of potentially difficult to follow endings, either by game or series. Plus Mass Effect: Andromeda which is widely regarded as hilariously bad.

Then there's Warhammer 40K which hasn't really had any runaway successes but has maintained a steady following in its various forms, and comes with Henry Cavill.

Winner!

These Amazon Stargate "leakers" might be leaking officially, with one of their goals being obfuscation of this competition.

Amazon wouldn't want Stargate or Mass Effect fans thinking that Warhammer 40K killed their series.

They'd want you to watch that instead.

We probably will.

Kind of a shame about Stargate but looking at recent Star Wars and Star Trek revivals, less truly can be more.

[ Main Image: Stargate SG-1 - Bane - Christopher Judge. Credit: MGM via IMDb.com. ]

References

SCI-TREK (January 3, 2023). Stargate in trouble. Big new series update. And welcome 2023. YouTube.