Babylon 5 Universe
B5 came to its natural end, Legend of the Rangers was a failure, Crusade was butchered by TNT, and The Lost Tales is considered a failure by JMS himself. We'll always have our DVDs, but the franchise is toast.
Farscape
A lot of us have wanted a Season 5 for a very long time. We got The Peacekeeper Wars, some comics, and that's it. There's been rumours of a web series, but all evidence seems to indicate it's been shelved indefinitely. Done.
Firefly
I love stories of sites like HelpNathanBuyFirefly.com, but networks rarely ever sell their IPs. For all the lousy treatment that FOX gave it, it's still a FOX property and they aren't going to let it go. We got Serentiy, and we get the odd comic. But it's never coming back to TV.
Fringe
Where we are right now, I really think it could go either way. FOX's decision to move the show into the Friday Night Death Slot was a kick in the teeth to all of us fans, and it's still something to be very very concerned about. But to everyone's surprise, the show has managed to hang onto most of its audience. That, paired with show-runner public statements that they believe they'll get another year if they maintain a 1.2 (which they've been consistently above), are causes for optimism. That said, the numbers still aren't very good for a major network series. So, yeah, I think it could still go either way.
Stargate SG-1
It's done. I hate to say it, because I would enjoy more movies, but I really don't think it's in the cards. All of the show's story arcs have been resolved, and then we got a movie that was a bit of AU/back to the beginning style fun in Continuum. But let's be honest: it's been years since anything SG-1 has been made, the sets are gone, and the actors have moved on. Odds are, it's done and gone.
Stargate Atlantis
Finished. Aside from the recent statement that the movie has been shelved indefinitely pending SGU's resolution, realize the reason why the show ended in the first place. Stargate's show-runners simply weren't interested in doing a sixth season, no matter how much it was wanted by the fans. The show is over and it isn't coming back.
Stargate Universe
A third season is absolutely not in the cards. A miniseries or direct-to-DVD movie is still possible, but as more and more time passes, it seems increasingly unlikely. At this point it's entirely possible, and even likely, that when the show finishes its final 10 episodes, it'll be over.
Star Trek Returning to Television
Still possible. But until they're done making a fortune off of JJ Abrams' movies, it will remain a film franchise. As to a return to the original/Prime universe? Never going to happen.
Star Wars
Sorry, haters, it's not going away. George Lucas said at the very beginning of The Clone Wars that they were planning on "about 100 episodes" regardless of ratings. So right there is two more years of Star Wars on TV. In September of 2011, all six films will be released for the first time on Blu-ray. And starting next winter (Feb 2012), all six films will begin seeing a (likely annual) theatrical re-release in 3D. So expect six more years of Star Wars on the big screen (and accompanying advertisement).
And don't let's also forget the proposed live-action TV series. The buzz says they already know what they want to do script-wise for the whole first season, and have preliminary plans for expanding it into four separate series after a few years. For the moment it's on hold ostensibly because they don't know how to make it profitable. But anyone with even an inkling of understanding of the entertainment business knows that that's just code for "it'll be profitable, but not profitable enough." So expect more Star Wars on TV in the future.
True Blood
HBO's darling series de jour. The show has been such a ratings powerhouse for the network that a fifth season is virtually a lock now, before the fourth season has even begun airing.
V (2009)
It's over. It was over when the season premiere was pushed back, and when the episode order for Season 2 was reduced from 13 to 10. The Season 2 premiere held the numbers from the S1 finale (which were barely enough to secure renewal), and viewership has dropped off steadily since then. This one is finished too.
The X-Files 3
A distinct possibility. It's obvious at this point that I Want to Believe did not perform up to expectation, and was an underwhelming film even for big X-Files fans. But it's come out that it has made its money back, so it really can't be considered a flop anymore.
It seems that the XF show-runners and actors are interested in a third film, so it's entirely possible that this project could happen. But the ball is in FOX's court, who may be (understandably) trepedatious after the poor performance of the last film.
B5 came to its natural end, Legend of the Rangers was a failure, Crusade was butchered by TNT, and The Lost Tales is considered a failure by JMS himself. We'll always have our DVDs, but the franchise is toast.
Farscape
A lot of us have wanted a Season 5 for a very long time. We got The Peacekeeper Wars, some comics, and that's it. There's been rumours of a web series, but all evidence seems to indicate it's been shelved indefinitely. Done.
Firefly
I love stories of sites like HelpNathanBuyFirefly.com, but networks rarely ever sell their IPs. For all the lousy treatment that FOX gave it, it's still a FOX property and they aren't going to let it go. We got Serentiy, and we get the odd comic. But it's never coming back to TV.
Fringe
Where we are right now, I really think it could go either way. FOX's decision to move the show into the Friday Night Death Slot was a kick in the teeth to all of us fans, and it's still something to be very very concerned about. But to everyone's surprise, the show has managed to hang onto most of its audience. That, paired with show-runner public statements that they believe they'll get another year if they maintain a 1.2 (which they've been consistently above), are causes for optimism. That said, the numbers still aren't very good for a major network series. So, yeah, I think it could still go either way.
Stargate SG-1
It's done. I hate to say it, because I would enjoy more movies, but I really don't think it's in the cards. All of the show's story arcs have been resolved, and then we got a movie that was a bit of AU/back to the beginning style fun in Continuum. But let's be honest: it's been years since anything SG-1 has been made, the sets are gone, and the actors have moved on. Odds are, it's done and gone.
Stargate Atlantis
Finished. Aside from the recent statement that the movie has been shelved indefinitely pending SGU's resolution, realize the reason why the show ended in the first place. Stargate's show-runners simply weren't interested in doing a sixth season, no matter how much it was wanted by the fans. The show is over and it isn't coming back.
Stargate Universe
A third season is absolutely not in the cards. A miniseries or direct-to-DVD movie is still possible, but as more and more time passes, it seems increasingly unlikely. At this point it's entirely possible, and even likely, that when the show finishes its final 10 episodes, it'll be over.
Star Trek Returning to Television
Still possible. But until they're done making a fortune off of JJ Abrams' movies, it will remain a film franchise. As to a return to the original/Prime universe? Never going to happen.
Star Wars
Sorry, haters, it's not going away. George Lucas said at the very beginning of The Clone Wars that they were planning on "about 100 episodes" regardless of ratings. So right there is two more years of Star Wars on TV. In September of 2011, all six films will be released for the first time on Blu-ray. And starting next winter (Feb 2012), all six films will begin seeing a (likely annual) theatrical re-release in 3D. So expect six more years of Star Wars on the big screen (and accompanying advertisement).
And don't let's also forget the proposed live-action TV series. The buzz says they already know what they want to do script-wise for the whole first season, and have preliminary plans for expanding it into four separate series after a few years. For the moment it's on hold ostensibly because they don't know how to make it profitable. But anyone with even an inkling of understanding of the entertainment business knows that that's just code for "it'll be profitable, but not profitable enough." So expect more Star Wars on TV in the future.
True Blood
HBO's darling series de jour. The show has been such a ratings powerhouse for the network that a fifth season is virtually a lock now, before the fourth season has even begun airing.
V (2009)
It's over. It was over when the season premiere was pushed back, and when the episode order for Season 2 was reduced from 13 to 10. The Season 2 premiere held the numbers from the S1 finale (which were barely enough to secure renewal), and viewership has dropped off steadily since then. This one is finished too.
The X-Files 3
A distinct possibility. It's obvious at this point that I Want to Believe did not perform up to expectation, and was an underwhelming film even for big X-Files fans. But it's come out that it has made its money back, so it really can't be considered a flop anymore.
It seems that the XF show-runners and actors are interested in a third film, so it's entirely possible that this project could happen. But the ball is in FOX's court, who may be (understandably) trepedatious after the poor performance of the last film.
Comment