The CW’s Babylon 5 reboot delayed amid network sale

A few months back, the news broke that The CW was rebooting the classic science fiction show Babylon 5. This was a big deal not just because Babylon 5 was incredibly influential in its day, but also because the reboot had original creator and writer J. Michael Straczynski attached. Straczynski hyped the project quite a bit, saying that he was “hip-deep into writing the pilot…[and would be] be running the series upon pickup.” He went on to explain that this was going to be a total reboot of Babylon 5 as opposed to a spinoff or sequel, reinventing the story with a fresh outlook, new technology, and the more refined storytelling techniques that Straczynski had honed over the course of his career.

“In the years since B5, I’ve done a ton of other TV shows and movies, adding an equal number of tools to my toolbox, all of which I can bring to bear on one singular question: If I were creating Babylon 5 today, for the first time, knowing what I now know as a writer, what would it look like?” Straczynski wrote at the time. “How would it use all the storytelling tools and technological resources available in 2021 that were not on hand then? How can it be used to reflect the world in which we live, and the questions we are asking and confronting every day?”

All in all, it sounded pretty promising. Babylon 5 was a series that had a longform story arc in a day when audiences were much more used to episodic fare. It was also the first show to ever “use CGI to create ships and characters” on screen.

But alas, as exciting as the idea of a Babylon 5 remake might be, it sounds like it may be getting put on ice, at least for the moment.

Babylon 5 reboot is cancelled…until next year?

The A.V. Club reports that Straczynski recently shared an update on his Patreon about the Babylon 5 reboot, revealing that for the time being work on the show’s pilot episode has stalled out. “99.999% of the time, that’s the end of the road for the project,” Straczynski wrote. It’s certainly not the news that anyone was hoping for.

But it’s not all bad, though. Straczynski went on to say that CW CEO Mark Pedowitz has praised the “damned fine script” of the pilot and is apparently so invested in it that he’s decided not to totally axe the show, instead opting to bump its development back a year. So while things have stalled out for now, Babylon 5’s pilot will get a shot to be redeveloped for The CW’s 2023 slate.

According to Straczynski, this is partially due to the fact that The CW is currently up for sale. Apparently the brass at the network wants to wait a bit for “the dust to settle” on that before launching into a big series like Babylon 5, which is fair, all things considered.

Straczynski isn’t too worried about any of this, though. “[Y]esterday, Babylon 5 was in active development at The CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2022. Today, Babylon 5 is in active development at The CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2023.”

For now, we wait and we watch. And hey, there’s always the original Babylon 5 to tide us over in the meantime.

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