Last week, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski told us to “watch the skies” for ‘something wonderful,’ and here it is. Nine months ago, the creator of the award-winning innovative space drama teased a second secret Babylon 5 project — one that would feature every surviving member of the main cast. The first is the long-in-development Babylon 5 series reboot at WB, delayed by corporate changes at Warner Discovery, and now the Writers Guild of America strike. This new movie appears to be completed.
“And just to be clear, this brand new original animated movie is already finished and in the can. So it’s 100% real, happening, and coming out very soon.” JMS #B5AnimatedMovie
The original Babylon 5 was produced by Warner Bros. Television. The series ran in syndication and on TNT for five seasons, 110 episodes, and seven TV movies, including the 1993 pilot film. The show is considered one of the best sci-fi series ever made by many critics and fans, and won numerous awards throughout its run, including two Emmys, two Hugos, a Saturn and a Nebula.
The show takes place on the titular Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a futuristic port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate agents and alien diplomats in an age of uneasy peace and the constant threat of interstellar war. The cast for the series included Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, and Richard Briggs. Straczynski followed up “Babylon 5” with the TNT spinoff series “Crusade.” The “Babylon 5” franchise also includes novels, short stories, and comic books. A reboot series was announced as being in development at The CW in 2021, and Straczynski recently said the project was still in active development at WD.
While he famously built “trapdoors” into every season of the original show in case his actors dropped out, a surprising number of the cast died following the end of the series, including Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Michael O’ Hare (Sinclair), and Stephen Furst (Vir). But in animated form they could appear…
The original Babylon 5 got a remaster in early 2021 that’s arguably better than the DVDs. Free to stream with ads at The Roku Channel and Tubi, and you can purchase digital episodes via Amazon and iTunes. One of the most compelling science fiction epics.
Above are ships from the original series, certain to be updated in the new movie. Straczynski did confirm that more information, including the release date, will be unveiled on May 10. Until then, there’s a hashtag with the initials of the new title if you can find it! Fan participation will be key to whether there will be more B5. Last year JMS asked fans to post about the reboot with hastags to demonstrate to WD that there was a fan base. B5 became the top trend on twitter, and the next day JMS reported that “the message was received” by CW.
#B5AnimatedMovie
-30-
David Raiklen wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. He began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He attended, then taught at UCLA, USC and CalArts. Among his teachers are John Williams and Mel Powel.
He has worked for Fox, Disney and Sprint. David has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2004 American Music Center Award. Dr. Raiklen has composed music and sound design for theater (Death and the Maiden), dance (Russian Ballet), television (Sing Me a Story), cell phone (Spacey Movie), museums (Museum of Tolerance), concert (Violin Sonata ), and film (Appalachian Trail).
His compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the first Disney Hall. David Raiken is also host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club.
I have not been able to confirm that the Tubi/Roku episodes are, indeed, the remastered ones. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
(Also, SUPER psyched about this!!)