Amazon’s Galaxy Quest TV series will mix old and new casts

It really shouldn't have worked; a comedy about a group of washed-up actors from a cult sci-fi TV series who became involved in an actual space adventure when a group of aliens mistook their TV show for real events. There were a million ways which GALAXY QUEST could have gone wrong, but miraculously, the film found success with its equal measures of comedy, action, and heart, not to mention its stellar cast consisting of Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, and more.

It would be a tall order to follow up the film, but a GALAXY QUEST TV series entered development in 2015 and later found a home at Amazon, however, with the tragic passing of Alan Rickman, it seemed that the project had been scrapped. Then, suddenly, the potential series found new life when Paul Scheer (THE DISASTER ARTIST) was tapped to pen the series in August. It's been a little while since we heard anything about the project, but Scheer recently spoke with /Film and provided an update on where they're at in the process.

Right now, I just handed in my first script to Amazon, so I’m in that zone. I’m excited about it. It’s a bigger idea that’s kind of morphed and changed a little bit. Not much. The thing I keep on saying about it, without giving too much away – because it’s going to be so long before people get to see it, I don’t want people to get too burnt out on me telling you what it’s about before it gets to that point – but for me, it was really important to do service to a Galaxy Quest story that gives you everything that you want and indoctrinates people who have never seen Galaxy Quest into what the fun of that world is. That Tropic Thunder, Galaxy Quest world. And also to continue the story of our original characters and have consequences from the first film.

It seems that the series will be mixing the older cast with a newer one, much like STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, as Paul Scheer added that the two casts will have their own adventures which will merge as the season goes on. Scheer also isn't looking at the first season as an episodic series, but rather as a serialized story which will address how fandom has changed now that sci-fi and comic-book actors are viewed as "rock stars."

And then the other jumping off point was, I love that in 1999, as a fan of Star Trek and going to these conventions since I was a kid: sci-fi, fantasy, those worlds have changed so drastically. I really wanted to capture the difference between the original cast of Star Trek and the J.J. Abrams cast of Star Trek. I think that, to me, is my entry point. Sci-fi heroes are rock stars now. If you look at Thor, in 1999 if that movie came out, it would not be received the way it is. People would not want to see a cosmic, galactic thing on that level. But now we’re accepting it. I think just by virtue of that switch in our environment, it’ll make the story feel a little bit more fresh.

The Galaxy Quest TV series is still in the early stages, and it hasn't been confirmed just which members of the original cast will be back, but, I'll admit to being cautiously optimistic about the project, even without the involvement of Alan Rickman. Meanwhile, Paul Scheer will next be seen in James Franco's THE DISASTER ARTIST on December 1, 2017.