Stargate: SG-1 was cancelled. In true Hollywood fashion, it was done on the eve of the show’s finest hour. The move wasn’t a surprise: the actor’s salaries had been rising for years at the same time that the ratings had been falling. 10 years is a good run for any show, and may be a record for science fiction.

In possibly related news, Dark Horizons reports that two new Stargate movies are in the works. The fun part is this:

Both movies will pick up the story from the 1994 original — but not the mythology subsequently elaborated on in the SCI FI Channel original series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis – “We would just continue the mythology of the movie and finish that out. I think the series could still live at the end of the third sequel. So we’re going to try to not tread on their stories” says Devlin.

Devlin added he hopes to enlist original stars Kurt Russell (Jack O’Neill) and James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson) who have expressed an interest. Part two is set twelve years later which matches the stars respective age additions.

Holy continuity, Batman! This should be making life real interesting for the guys making the Stargate MMO. The good news for those guys is that Stargate: Atlantis is still around. Fans of Stargate will point out this is kind of like saying “Sure, John Belushi’s dead, but we still have Jim!”

Which is a shame, since the license is so tailor-made to making a great MMO. The core of the license is, effectively, instanced tactical combat. Much better than, say, Highlander, where the core of the license is permadeath.